Rejuvenating the rosarium

With our focus on the maintenance of the buildings at Towerwater in 2022, the garden had to take a bit of a backseat. We could not give it our full attention and only crucial basic maintenance like cleaning and pruning continued unabated.

We did not replace any roses in 2022 because of our negative experience in the purchase of roses in 2021. We normally buy new roses when we prune to plant them immediately after the pruning as part of the annual rejuvenation of the rosarium. Unfortunately, it transpired that two of the pruned roses we bought in July 2021, produced different blooms from what we thought we had bought. When they flowered in spring, we were startled by two pink roses flowering in the wrong colour sections of the rosarium. One in the yellow section and one in the white section. The roses were marked with the names of the roses we had carefully selected but “Randburg Gold” (yellow) and “Pascali” (white) both flowered in different shades of pink, showing clearly that they had been incorrectly labeled.

As luck would have it, the pink “Randburg Gold” in the yellow section of the rosarium turned out to be a stunningly strong grower and we decided to live with the nursery’s mistake, for now. Nature took care of the mistake in the white section and the pink “Pascali” did not perform well and needed to be replaced after two years.

With the mistakes in mind, we decided to delay the major renovation of the rosarium until we could give it our full attention this year. We have bought roses for nearly 30 years in their dormant state to plant them in July after the rosarium has been pruned. Up to this point, we never considered the possibility that we might be supplied with an incorrectly labeled rose.

The first flush of the new rosarium in 1995

After we reviewed the performance of the roses over the last couple of years, we decided to replace 37 for a variety of reasons. The large order of roses needed careful planning. To avoid the risk of repeating any mistakes as in 2021, we decided to buy the roses in May (autumn) while there were blooms on the plants that could confirm correct labeling.

The rosarium in late Summer 2023

With the nursery located at about 140 kilometers away from Bonnievale, the trip to Tulbagh had to be planned. We had planned to visit the town of Ceres on our way back to Bonnievale. But buying 37 different rosebushes turned out to be a time-consuming exercise. We did however stop for a late lunch at Nuy on the Hill on our way back.

The rose section at Tulbagh Nursery

We were pleased that we had decided to buy the roses in May. Some of the roses on our planting scheme were no longer available. Deciding on appropriate replacements could be better informed by the showy blooms on alternative replacements that met our various plant criteria.

The visit to Tulbagh Nursery was exciting as always. The selection of healthy roses in leaf and in bloom is particularly exciting. Excited and exhausted we headed back home with 37 rose plants, one eureka lemon tree for the empty spot in the citrus row, and two Cupressus Strictas for our friend Susan.

The planting of the roses was a bit more difficult with the rosarium still in late bloom. Each new rose received some Mycorrhizal powder. The powder contains indigenous strains of mycorrhizal fungi, which work in symbiotic harmony with plant roots to promote plant growth and health. Mycorrhizae colonise plant roots and then function as an extension of the plant's root system, increasing the absorptive surface area of roots by up to 700 times. This healthy boost greatly assists roses being planted in positions where roses have previously grown.

Keith decided that he needs to be able to identify each rose at a glance instead of consulting the map of the rosarium in the library. We decided on a small plant marker for each rose on which the name of the rose, the variety of the rose, colour, position in the garden, and planting date can be displayed. It was a rewarding exercise that gave us a clearer indication of how many of the original roses from the 1995 planting are still in the garden. Now a walk in the rosarium is more informative and one can more easily identify the strong growers by name and variety. It also helps to identify which roses need more care and which are more susceptible to disease.

In our efforts to keep the garden as organic as possible, we have decided to switch to Guano organic fertilizer granules in the rosarium this year.  Combined with our own organic compost, we hope that the guano will help to regulate the pH of the soil to an acceptable level for the roses.

Spring 1995

With the new interventions we hope that the Towerwater rosarium will reward us with a delightful display. We fondly recall the first display of the new roses in the spring of 1995.

Finding Peace in the garden

We find comfort in stability and reliability. It is a joy to know that one can rely on a business that one has supported for the last 30 years, to be in the same spot delivering the same quality service without fail. When we decided to replace nearly a third of the rose bushes in the rosarium, it was good to know that we would be able to buy some of the new roses from the same nursery that supplied the original roses for the new rosarium at Towerwater 28 years ago.

The rosarium being restored

As it happens, when I started cleaning out the loft a while back, I came across a bilingual catalogue of the same nursery dating from 1953. We had initially found the catalogue amongst many other things, in the loft when we bought the property in 1991. We decided to keep it with some other historical documents and records we discovered when we began cleaning before undertaking the renovations.

Ashton Nursery as it looks today

S.F Conradie began his nurseries in 1923. In the 1940’s, S.F. Conradie and his son T.V. Conradie together started the nursery called S.F. Conradie & Son, in Ashton. S.F. Conradie & Son later became Ashton Nurseries (Pty) Ltd.

The biographies of S.F. and T.V. Conradie as published in the 1953 catalogue

The catalogue introduces the business as follows, “We are Registered Nurserymen in Fruit Trees, Rose Trees and Vines, also Merchants in Government tested Vegetable Seeds and Flower Seeds”.

The catalogue contains extensive lists of 14 types of fruit trees, each with its own list of cultivars. They had nine vine cultivars and 100 different rose plants. Inside the printed catalogue I found a hand typed list of additions to the roses, fruit trees and vines for 1953.

It was interesting to note that of the 100 different roses, plus the 10 additional on the typed list for 1953, only one rose survived onto the current list. That is Peace, a rose with the following description in the catalogue: “Peace – You can expect some of the most spectacular roses ever seen in your garden. Flowers are delicately coloured in tones of gold, white and apple-blossom. The world’s favourite.”

The previous owner and sons posing next to a rose bush in the front garden

Interesting how the rose growing culture has changed in 68 years. I understand that rose propagators are constantly trying to cultivate stronger, more floriferous, fragrant and disease resistant roses. These roses inevitably become more popular. Although the favourites of 1953 might still be available somewhere, mostly in Europe, it does make better business sense to grow and stock the hardier ones.

The rosebush, possibly "Peace" a favourite prop in photos

In some of the old black and white photographs we found on the loft, were photographs taken of the family in the garden among their roses. The rose bushes were probably bought from Ashton Nursery around 1953. The tall light rose in many of the photographs looks to me like Peace. If one could colourise these photographs I am sure it would turn out to be the Peace rose.

It is warming to support a family business that has been around for the best part of a century. As we planted the Peace rose that we bought from Ashton Nursery this year, we realised that there must have been a Peace rose growing in the Towerwater garden since it first became available to rose growers after the second World War in 1945.

Restoring the rosarium

More posts featuring the rosarium in flower:

A posse ad esse - “from possibility to actuality."

The hundred petaled rose

In Chloris’s footsteps

Roses in October

The Spring Flush of the Rosarium

Restoring the rosarium

This year, we replaced 33 rose bushes in the rosarium. In 28 years of the rosarium’s existence, it is the largest replanting undertaken in a single year. This bold move was made possible by my research into the best approach for introducing new roses into an existing rosarium.

Replacement roses marked with poles

I grew up with the received wisdom that a new rose bush is never planted in the same soil where one has previously grown. The understanding is that the bushes would be susceptible to ‘rose replant disease’. We used to replace the soil for every new rose bush that we introduced into the rosarium. This meant that we would laboriously dig out the soil and replace it with fresh soil from another part of the garden. We also took the secondary precautionary measure of lining the hole where the new rose was being planted with cardboard before introducing the new soil to the hole.

Replacing soil somehow always resulted in spare bags of soil after the swopping exercise. It remains a mystery to me as to why one always had more bags come out of a hole than one is able to put back.

The spare bags of soil came in handy over the years though. We used them as top dressing for the lawn. After scarifying the lawn, we would also level any hollows in the lawn with the excess soil.

I decided that I needed to obtain clarity about this labour-intensive practice of replacing soil if one needs to plant new roses. Asking Google, “Why does one have to replace the soil in an existing rose bed for new roses?”, a search result returned that may change our approach to future rose gardening.

The first result was very interesting. It explained that the replacing of the soil should not be necessary if one removes all the old roots, introduce lots of garden compost and treats the roots of the new rose with Mycorrhizal fungi. Mycorrhizal fungi?

Apparently, Mycorrhizal fungi have a symbiotic relationship with plants. What they do is that they help the plants take up water and nutrients. At the same time, they act as a buffer against certain harmful microbes and pathogens that may have been left behind by the roses bushes that were there before.

All the holes dug and ready for planting

The good news was that if we introduce mycorrhizal fungi, there would be no need to replace the old soil. I immediately started researching Mycorrhizal fungi and was amazed by my findings. A network of fungal threads forms an association with the roots of the rose bushes. Becoming, in the process, an extension to their root system.

In a symbiotic relationship the fungus collects sugars from the plant while helping the plant absorb water and nutrients more efficiently. In this way enhanced growth and overall health of the plant is facilitated.

I shared the information with Keith, who agreed that this sounded like the solution for which we had been looking.

I discovered that in recent years, dried granules of mycorrhizal fungi have been widely used as an aid which helps rose bushes overcome ‘rose replant disease’. Some leading European rose nurseries even sell branded mycorrhizal fungi.

My next problem was where to find a supplier? The local manufacturer in Grahamstown had a very informative website but my email correspondence with them remained unanswered. I tried to contact an online retailer with offices in Cape Town through their website and email, but these also remained unanswered.

Determined to find this product, I at last found a retailer located in Somerset West that had stock. When Keith had to go to Cape Town, he picked up our order of 5kg of the granules on his return route to Towerwater.

Encouraged by our new solution to our rose replacing exercise, we were emboldened in our decision of selecting which rose bushes to replace this year. We ended up marking 33 roses for replacement. Some of them were of the original planting 28 years ago. Some were no longer performing making certain colourscapes appear moth-eaten. Others we were keen to replace simply had not performed as we had hoped.

New roses at Ashton Nursery

To find 33 different rose varieties was the next challenge. Our rosarium is after all comprised of a collection of 120 different varieties of rosebushes. Our first choice, Ashton Nursery, who had supplied the roses for the original planting, has scaled down the rose selection of the nursery. Their focus is currently on fruit tree production. I bought as many of the rose varieties as they had in stock that met our criteria, particularly in terms of height, growth pattern and colour. The bulk of the rose plants, Keith collected from the Tulbagh Nursery.

New roses waiting to be planted

With all the young rose plants on site, the planting could begin. With fresh compost from our own compost bins and the mycorrhizal fungi granules, the roses were put to bed.

All the roses restored in the rosarium

With our newfound garden vocabulary and learning of the microbiome of plants and more of the microbial communities and networks in the soil, we eagerly await the results of our latest gardening endeavour.   

More adventures with roots and fungi - Misty mornings and mushrooms