Story Title: Summer Roses
Episode: Summer Garden Special
Date: January 15th 2010
Presenter: Deryn Thorpe

Many roses have a dormant spell in summer as spring and autumn are the peak times for flowering. Discover how you can have summer roses with Deryn’s top 10 care tips.

Deryn’s Top 10 Roses Care Tip

1. Fertilise regularly and apply mulch and seaweed fertiliser through summer.
2. Deadhead roses - removing dead flowers from your roses will make them look better and encourage them to rebloom.
3. Apply enough water to avoid burns from the intense heat.
4. To reduce mildew problems never water roses at night and make sure that they are in a full sun position.
5. Sterilise your secateurs after pruning to avoid mosaic virus spreading on your rose bushes.
6. Check for rootstock growth on roses-this is a cane that grows beneath the graft.
7. Usually the graft foliage is different from that of the rose-remove it by ripping it off rather than cutting it.
8. Pick roses for the vase early in the morning before an intense heat wave is forecast, so you can joy their beauty inside.
9. Using Penelope flowers to develop fat hips that turn a brilliant shade of crimson through autumn and early winter.
10. You can buy many commercial products to combat the fungus but homemade remedies work well.

Deryn’s Favourite homemade remedy

• Mix full cream with one part to ten with water.
• Place in a spray bottle.
• Full cream milk fat helps stop the spores infecting leaves.
• Apply the spray frequently and start spraying before the fungus is well established.