If you grow roses like I do, you know all too well about the pests and other challenges you face in growing these prized flowers. Recently, I dealt with another potential issue for rose gardeners – how to move a rose to a new location in the garden.

In my case, the rose plant in question was one my children had given me as a Father’s Day present. So naturally, I had some trepidation in disturbing this plant by digging it out from its current location out of concern that I might damage or even kill the rose in the process. However, in the last few years, its growing conditions have been far from adequate, resulting in both a decline in its ability to flower and an increased frequency of becoming infected with certain diseases. After doing some research, I used this technique to transplant this rose to a better location. It’s now been several weeks since I dug up the rose and moved it to its new home, but given its current growth in both foliage and new shoots, I can say the transplant was a success.

So here is the technique I used to transplant my rose. I’ve created some illustrations for this technique to make it easier to visualize the process as I go through the steps. Click here to continue reading »”How to Transplant a Rose – An Illustrated Guide”

So, it’s raining here . . . again. It seems pretty much to be the rule this summer that it’s going to rain almost every other day. In fact, now when my wife checks the weather report, I ask her ‘So when are we expected to see the sun again?’. I haven’t bothered checking the meteorological reports, but it won’t be surprising if they declare this summer to be one of the wettest ever on record. In fact, it occurred to me this morning that we’re near the end of summer and I haven’t once used the sprinkler to water the lawn. Naturally, this weather has the obvious downsides of reducing the number of days I can pull out the BBQ or that we can head out to the beach or attend one of the outdoor events around the city. But it’s also impacting me on another front – that as a gardener.

Oh sure, I know what most of you are thinking – what’s that? A gardener complaining about rain? Well, under normal conditions I wouldn’t since like most gardeners, I plan my work around the rain forecasts as some gardening tasks actually benefit from being done just before it rains or just after. But this summer, we’ve had more rainy days than sunny ones and the impact on certain sections of my garden has been noticeable – both for the better and for the worse. Click here to continue reading »”This Has Not Been A Summer For Gardeners”