Roses

[@K.KleopatraK.]

Absolutely wonderful, peaceful, inspiring... it´s back to the roots, your place and surroundings.

[@nikkonch]

Thank you! I am glad you like my garden and the view.

[@gavinparry5426]

Plenty in flower going into Sept Nik. Glad to hear you are happy with BMS. You can look forward to plenty of flowers next June!

[@nikkonch]

Next June Gav? I'm hoping for loads of flowers next month!

[@Jay_Jay]

Hi nik hope your well. I have to say your roses looking very healthy indeed. Fantastic foliage and very healthy I don’t think I saw a single bit of disease, and for this time of year beginning of September flowering awesome too. I think I would have taken that a couple of months ago really Well done :)

[@nikkonch]

Welcome back Jay Jay! Your not seeing any disease is either a tribute to my skilful filming or else you need to visit Specsavers - black spot is creeping in on many of the roses now, especially on the older, lower foliage. I passed my "Well Being" on because it was constantly suffering and it depressed me seeing it. In fact my in-laws have taken quite a few roses off my hands to fill in a spot they have cleared apple trees from - Blue Eyes, Meteor, Stromboli, Lady Marmalade - and Boscobel is coming their way, and even Silas Marner and Queen of Sweden are possibly leaving. When you only have limited space I think you should only have roses that bring you pleasure, and those don't. I have been packing things in and it does get to look untidy and difficult to appreciate the individual bushes. The decking will look a lot clearer when those orange climbers get planted by the (sunny) fence, and I would like to have the two Princesses (Anne and Alexandra) get a bit more room - I have to drag Anne across the decking to be able to deadhead and cut Alexandra at the moment. I couldn't resist Bring Me Sunshine with all the positive comments it gets online, but don't know where it will go in the garden. The House Martins are still gathering and noisily flying around an hour or so later - it's pretty amazing to watch them zooming low across the field and then missing your head by a few feet, and the noise of them all together! We've had several sub-10 degree nights now and a thunderstorm forecast for tomorrow, so maybe they are indeed heading south. Over here in the west near the hills of Wales it's been a fairly sunless, damp, cool summer, so I don't blame them wanting to leave! But it does seem to have been great weather for the roses. Anyway, your fans want to hear from you - I know they would rather listen to you talking about a single rose than me wittering on about all of mine, so we await your pleasure!

[@peterhaymaker7562]

Really enjoyed the trip around your lovely, colourful garden Nik. I guess the roses haven't minded your Summer too much looking at them. As I write this I wonder if the Housemartins are still with you or are they heading down south now? I doubt they'd be flying over Kent though. It's so long since we've had any Housemartins around here I've forgotten if they are as trusting of human beings as Swallows are? Regardless, I love most birds - let's say some more than others. I gess too, like me, you'll be glad that watering is nearly over although I guess we've done more of it down here than with you. I guess we'll see more of your roses before the season's finished too. Cheers! P.

[@nikkonch]

Hi Peter. I can't say that I've noticed any birds being trusting apart from a robin who would wait outside the garage door each morning while I went to collect some birdfood for him and his fellows - oh, and robins and blackbirds hoping for worms as I am working in the garden. But I think that's cupboard love rather than trust. Yes, there's less watering but a lot of cutting back and clearing, as well as repotting and planting, to be done over the next months before we can enjoy a rest.

[@soulgirlktf]

Hi Nik, lovely look around your beautiful roses, thank you. So many blooming it's really nice to see. Sweet Honey is budding up for second flush here. Things are a little slower up here. The birds are busy right now aren't they, we had a picnic lunch at the beach yesterday, enjoyed watching all the swifts zooming about, really lovely to see. Have a lovely weekend, take care.

[@nikkonch]

Thanks Linda. Every week of flowering after August is like a bonus, isn't it? I'm hoping for a massive bonus this year! It's hours later now and I am still watching the House Martins flying around - are they in training for the big one to the south? I hope you get a massive bonus too!

[@Raj-45a]

As always very attractive roses, Nik. I hope to add mum in a million rose to my collection. Is it a healthy and good repeat bloomer ? Thanks for sharing such beautiful roses.

[@nikkonch]

Thanks Raj. I am hesitant to say much about Mum in a Million. This is her first summer with me and I have learnt that some roses only show themselves at their best after 2-3 years. Also my growing conditions this year, generally cool and damp with limited sunshine, may not be ideal for this rose (the conditions were near disastrous for my tomato crop this year). I have seen lots of positive comments here from rose enthusiasts, but my personal experience this year has been slighty disappointing - the flowers are attractive and have a powerful scent, but I haven't seen many multi-flowered heads yet, mainly singles, and there was blackspot on lower foliage on this rose when others showed no sign of it - although the foliage is largely healthy at the moment. It has not been a good repeater for me either. If you haven't already done so, perhaps you might search for Mum in a Million videos here and see what other people have found.

[@Raj-45a]

@@nikkonch Many thanks for your input and suggestions, Nik. I know this rose Millie is a Paulsen ( Denmark) rose introduced in 2005. As you said it may take 2/3 yrs to show it's full performance. Will check other YT videos for mum in a million rose reviews but generally they only show images when the roses are at their best and rarely talk about re- blooms frequency. Agree with cool summer this year, however my four tomato plants has done well, somehow.

[@whitejasmine5514]

Your roses looked happy healthy and big. How do you take care of them and what do you feed them .

[@nikkonch]

Each rose bush gets a handful of Toprose feed at the beginning of the season and after the first flush. I have sprayed them twice with Roseclear this season. I water them nearly every evening. I deadhead and cut off diseased leaves as frequently as I can. The rest is up to Mother Nature. This year the summer weather here has been cool and damp, with not much prolonged heat or sun, and the roses have seemed to flourish.

[@wendybartlett6717]

Your roses are still looking lovely Nik. Lots of colour. I bought a Mum in a Million for half price in M and S just after Mothers' Day this year. Think I first saw it in Ken's garden and liked the colour. Gave her a bigger pot and she's been performing beautifully and still has blooms and healthy foliage. Did you grow your Marigolds from seed? They are looking great en masse. Always a good "doer" in my garden and an annual that's not been battered by all the wind and rain that we've had this year. Think I'm going to do less Petunias next year as they've been more high maintenance than usual. Lovely to hear the birds tweeting away in your garden. I had a friendly robin giving me company for over an hour on Friday. Even followed me to the garden waste bin and when I spoke to it (yes, I'm a mad woman) it kept looking at me tilting its head from side to side. I'm not so keen on the crows that arrived a while ago as they scare the sparrows and make a hell of a racket especially first thing in the morning.

[@nikkonch]

Mum in a Million does have a wonderful fragrance. Yes, the marigolds were grown from seed, as were the zinnias, the snapdragons and the cupcake cosmos - not sure what I'll grow next year since that new bed will be planted with roses next year, so there won't be much space - I'll probably not bother with the zinnias in any case. We had torrential rain today, so the roses took a real battering - I don't think I'll be making another video over the next few days. Talking to robins is fine - I do it too! We've had buzzards over the hill in front of our house recently and their keening is almost continuous at times, but I don't find it annoying. We seem to be on a bird highway - we had about 40 honking geese fly over the house a couple of days ago, and at certain times of the year we get a hundred or more seagulls flying across the hills behind us, but silently, every evening at dusk. I am really pleased to have seen a pheasant in our garden today, sheltering from the heavy rain under the acer.

[@yogaraneesuthaharan3100]

Hi stunning garden. I love 2:32 all of your roses. I want to know the name of the red floribunda rose which is planted near by super trouper and pink eye rose please.

[@nikkonch]

Hi. That rose is Evelyn Fison. The colour is a very bright red which really attracts the eye. The individual flowers are very long-lasting and the small bush is rarely without blooms. I have noticed recently that in my garden it is suffering quite badly from black spot as the summer comes to an end, but I think I would still recommend the rose because it is such an amazingly brilliant eye-catching red.

[@yogaraneesuthaharan3100]

Thank you so much for the detailed reply. I also thought this is an outstanding rose among light coloured roses.