I have had the actual flowers eaten off at the base of the flower so that all the petals fall to the ground. The birds don’t seem to want the flower at all, just the juicy bit below.
So today I thought of a plan. I would shield the flowers with tin foil. So I grabbed a roll of tin foil and proceeded to give each iris bud a protective collar so that the flower could emerge but that the juicy calyx would be protected.
I didn’t have to wait too long for the result of my experiment. I went inside for lunch, and when I came out to view my handiwork, there lay the tin foil on the ground together with the bitten off iris buds. The birds had simply bitten off the stem below the tin foil.
Frustrating?
Yes!
But I haven’t given up yet. I’m determined to devise another plan and I’ll keep you posted as to my success or otherwise.
Meanwhile, if you have any suggestions please send them in. I will be ever so grateful!
Add some yellow roses to your garden to bring happiness by the armful!
Yellow is a happy colour and yellow roses have always conveyed a special message of celebration.
People send them to celebrate happy occasions and to bring cheer into the lives of friends and loved ones.
You may have noticed how a patch of yellow roses can liven up a whole rose garden.
It’s as if a ray of sunlight has settled into the garden to show up all the other colours.
If you would like to grow yellow roses in your garden there one or two things to bear in mind before you go out to buy your rose bushes.
Unfortunately, yellow roses are notoriously difficult to grow successfully. Many of them are prone to diseases such as rust and black spot.
So before you even think of visiting the rose nursery remember to consult your rose catalogue first to make sure that the yellow roses you have selected are disease free.
This is essential because when roses are in bloom at a nursery they all look wonderful. They get specialist treatment there so you won’t see a sign of any rose disease or insect damage. Only when they are in your garden will you discover the problems.
So do your homework first before you allow yourself to be tempted.
If you’ve never seen what an iris looks like after the birds have been at it – I can tell you.
Decapitated” is the first word that comes to mind!
No sooner does an iris starts to show colour and begin to open than I find it lying in tatters on the ground.
Even the side blooms get decapitated one by one. Snapped off at the base of the flower with only a few ragged remnants lying on the ground to taunt me.
Flickr photo : Tie Guy II
Birds that eat irises certainly have good taste. They can’t be faulted on that one.
But why don’t they rather go for the dainty little lobelias or some other tasty flower nearby? Why are they choosing my prize irises?
To make matters worse, no one has heard of my particular gardening predicament. They find it very funny and think I’m joking!
Fortunately for the birds I have an organic garden so I don’t use poisons. And even though there are times when I could cheerfully roast those birds for our next Sunday lunch I don’t really want to hurt them.
So this is an urgent S.O.S. If you have had any experience with birds eating irises please get back to me in haste. If you have any suggestions I would be more than grateful.
I have noticed how some gardeners prune their roses almost right down to the ground so that the bush is left with canes that are only a few inches above the ground.
I think it’s nothing short of murder. I don’t think that this is what nature intended and let’s face it, pruning is not a very friendly act at the best of times.
But there are advantages to pruning and that is why we do it. It forces the bush to recover by producing fresh long canes and show-stopping roses.
So the bottom line is that we have to hit a compromise. Which is why I go for light pruning.
I try to keep to the original shape of the bush without cutting it down too low. I like my rose bushes to grow tall and bushy with lots of roses – a sort of natural look.
So I cut out dead branches and trim the tree well. I cut off all straggly growth and remove ugly crossing canes that hamper the bush.
Once the bush has been cleaned I reduce the canes by 1/3 to a half of the original height if the bush has grown too tall and straggly.
After that it’s simply a matter of caring for your rose bushes and waiting for the first leaves to sprout.
Let me know what you prefer – heavy pruning or light pruning. I would be interested to know your reasons too.
While folk in the northern hemisphere are trying to keep cool in the heat of summer, here in the southern hemisphere we are still feeling the bite of cold winter mornings. But the days are crisp and sunny with a promise of warmer weather.
One or two early birds have started building their nests and the sap is staring to rise in the rose bushes.
Which means pruning time!
The most optimum time for pruning here is the middle towards the end of July or even in early August.
The important thing is to wait till the eyes all along the rose canes start to look alive. Eventually the little red eye buds along the stems will peep out and begin to fatten. Watch for this carefully because the roses need to be pruned before the eye buds on the stems burst into tiny leaflets .
I checked this morning but we have been having cold nights with frost – and the roses are still dormant. The little side shoots are starting to bud ever so slightly but they are not yet ready so I will hold onto my shears and wait a while before starting to prune.
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There’s a special secret to pruning climbing roses. But I have found that not many home gardeners take advantage of it.
The first thing to do is to take a good look at your climber first. From a distance.
You’ll probably notice how most of the roses are gathered at the top of the climber while the rest of the bush consists of canes and leaves with very few flowers.
Now the idea is to get the climber to produce roses all along the canes rather than only at the top of the bush. You don’t want your climber to be bare all along the base.
So here’s the secret of pruning your climbing roses.
A climber must never be heavily pruned. You need all those supple canes to be as long as possible.
You will only need to clear out the dead branches and weak side shoots and branches that cross over in an unsightly way. Sometimes these cross-over branches interfere with the canes that you want to encourage – so these can safely be removed.
After cleaning up your climbing rose in this way bend each long cane right down to form an arch. Then tie it down with raffia or a piece of old stocking. These will be gentle on the canes.
Soon little side shoots will start developing all along the arched canes to eventually provide you with hundreds and hundreds of lovely roses. You will have arch upon arch thickly garlanded with your favourite roses.
Of course we have lost touch with nature! The very fact that we need to ask such a question shows that there is a problem.
Because most of us live in cities we have lost touch with the earth and everything connected with it. We have lost the old sense of well-being that people used to derive from the rural way of life that was somehow sustaining and reassuring.
We have been separated from the spiritual sanctity of forests and we have been denied the comforting familiarity of well-known woodland paths.
A Rose-covered Cottage
The rose-covered cottage is a myth and we have lost our synchronisation with the slow, unhurried earth rhythms that bring in seasonal changes.
We have lost the very essence of our humanity because the urban way of life has desensitised us towards nature.
And so we have plastic trees and artificial roses in our homes and offices to remind us of nature. But it doesn’t work.
Lost in The Rampant Jungles of Civilization
We have become emotionally disorientated and spiritually disconnected because we have lost our way in the rampant jungles of civilization. Concrete jungles that have progressively altered the face of the earth, changed the environment and modified the climate.
Urbanisation and cities erupt about us with tall, forest-like structures of cement and chrome.
Buildings are piled high on one another because space has run out and the pores of the earth are so deeply clogged with concrete that nature cannot breathe.
Instead of wide stretches of land and open fields we have constructions that cover large areas of earth with deep layers of concrete and tar. Jagged horizons of high-rise buildings extend like huge bar graphs into the sky.
All this has taken its toll on our wellbeing causing depression and malaise.
Give me a Garden
We need the open fields. We need miles of unspoilt land and acres of forest. But failing that we need gardens. More and more of them.
Because gardens bring nature back into our lives. They give us tranquillity and re-establish the balance with nature that we need so badly.
A garden may be a poor replica of a rampant jungle but it keeps us in touch with nature and connects us with the earth.
