Roses

Heirloom Rose

When looking for roses in next year’s garden, try an heirloom rose. These are older roses (many shrub roses) which the hybrid teas replaced in the last 30 years for their long blooming time. However, many of the older roses have a hardiness and disease resistance that can not be beaten. They also have odd colors that stand out and an old history of the family they are in.

I remember my Grandmother was in a rose club in Winner. Her house on Polk Street was surrounded by roses and climbing roses many I assume are now heirloom roses and never had a problem with winter kill.

For instance, the Apothecary’s rose is the oldest cultivated rose going back to the Crusades. The red color symbolizes the blood of the Christian martyrs. The petals were dried and rolled in beads which became the rosary.

Apothecary’s Rose

Damask roses are an old variety of highly fragrant roses, usually pinkish in colors, used for fragrance in early French perfumes. A true shrub rose with double flowers.

Damask Rose

La France rose is noted as being the first developed hybrid tea rose. Hybrid teas have a big single flower on each branch.

La France Rose

There are some nurseries online that specialize in heirloom roses.

Garden almanac

Fall Tilling

Fall tilling in the garden and annual flowerbed is the best time. When you are ready to plant in April with the early spring crops the soil is ready with reduced weed interference.

In the fall the soil is dryer and will compact less. Add organic matter to be dug down like peat moss, compost, or rotting straw, hay, alfalfa matter. These materials will decompose over the winter helping build stronger plant roots in the spring.

Tilled soil also helps control disease and weeds. Also, the garden will catch snow improving soil moisture for the spring.

You should not till more than once a year because it breaks down the soil particles too much especially for clay soils. Many gardeners now plant using the built-up method (no-till) walking only on walkways. Just make sure you remove any disease plants or weeds from the garden.

Garden Pests

Carrot Weevil

Who is eating these tunnels in my carrots? They all called the carrot weevil. The adult in a tiny brown bug with a snout laying eggs on the crown of the carrot. The little white worms burrow down on the taproot leaving tunnels along the root.

Carrot weevil damage on carrots
Carrot Weevil Damage

If you have them this year, you will have them next year. The best control is prevention by digging up the garden in the fall and removing the debris from the garden. Crop rotation in the garden is the best way to prevent many problems. They are worse in wetter years than dry years.

You can use a drench of Neem oil (mixed with equal parts of water in a sprinkling can) and saturate the ground where the carrots are growing. If you see the weevils before they lay eggs, you can spray with Malathion.

These weevils attack parsnips, but to a much lesser extent.