WIND DAMAGE
I could never be an agricultural farmer. When I saw what the wind and lashing, horizontal rain was doing to my garden yesterday, when I saw what it had done on inspection today while the wind was still blowing strong, it made my heart hurt. Some of the raspberry canes have been almost dragged out of the ground, the leaves are battered, the embryo fruits damaged. Two of my climbing roses have broken in the wind - Aloha and New Dawn. The polytunnel which I bought early April has turned out to be a load of rubbish and a waste of money (it tears too easily and it seems as if the plastic shrinks in sunny heat - what sunny heat? you might ask!), and it has ripped in three places so it will not see another year. The tomato plants that were harbouring within the confines of the polytunnel are smashed out of shape and I wonder if they will revive, and part of the loganberry vine was ripped from the fence. At the front, of my house, rose blooms have not just been blown off, they have blown off stem and all and are now stuck in a vase, looking a bit dirty and bedraggled - I rescued them as they blew around in the dirt.
Despite the weather, the climbing iceberg rose is hanging in and looking beautiful. The centres of the flowers have a beautiful pinkish tinge and they really are worth growing although I have had to spray them for disease and pests this year. They are looking pretty healthy right now. Let's hope the wind allows them to stay that way.
William Morris (below) isn't looking all that happy. It's so sad because it's such a beautiful rose when perfect. Every year this happens, the buds swell up like paeonies and then the rain fills the opening buds with water and they rot from the inside out. Fortunately, I watched Gardener's World on the television last night and the presenter, Monty Don, came up with what might be a solution for poor old William Morris's headache. He said that when the weather is rainy and bad, water gets into the buds of the old English type of roses and causes 'balling'. What causes the roses to drop off is that the outside petals dry and form a shell stopping them from opening which keeps the water inside and then causes the whole thing to rot and drop off. Monty Don said you have to peel off that outer 'shell' of dried petals to allow the rose to open. If it ever stops raining, and the outside of the flowers get a chance to dry, I shall be able to test that idea. You can see it happening in the image below.
Check my later post for a photo of the William Morris rose fully opened. Monty Don was right.
Changing the subject, the raspberries are in the wrong place. I have nowhere else to plant them, but where they are the wind hits them sideways. Everything in the border facing the sun seems to be sheltered from the north wind by my fencing. Everything away from the shelter gets a good smacking when the wind gets up. Aloha and New Dawn, unfortunately, are on the other side of the garden facing almost north.
I have learned a lesson and it really pretty much serves me right that my garden has been so damaged. Time and again I see gardening programmes where it tells you to tie in your plants in the case of wind and, yes, I do to a degree but obviously not well enough. I've been out this morning and shut the barn door after the horses have bolted.
Despite the weather, the climbing iceberg rose is hanging in and looking beautiful. The centres of the flowers have a beautiful pinkish tinge and they really are worth growing although I have had to spray them for disease and pests this year. They are looking pretty healthy right now. Let's hope the wind allows them to stay that way.
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| Iceberg hanging in there |
William Morris (below) isn't looking all that happy. It's so sad because it's such a beautiful rose when perfect. Every year this happens, the buds swell up like paeonies and then the rain fills the opening buds with water and they rot from the inside out. Fortunately, I watched Gardener's World on the television last night and the presenter, Monty Don, came up with what might be a solution for poor old William Morris's headache. He said that when the weather is rainy and bad, water gets into the buds of the old English type of roses and causes 'balling'. What causes the roses to drop off is that the outside petals dry and form a shell stopping them from opening which keeps the water inside and then causes the whole thing to rot and drop off. Monty Don said you have to peel off that outer 'shell' of dried petals to allow the rose to open. If it ever stops raining, and the outside of the flowers get a chance to dry, I shall be able to test that idea. You can see it happening in the image below.
Check my later post for a photo of the William Morris rose fully opened. Monty Don was right.
Changing the subject, the raspberries are in the wrong place. I have nowhere else to plant them, but where they are the wind hits them sideways. Everything in the border facing the sun seems to be sheltered from the north wind by my fencing. Everything away from the shelter gets a good smacking when the wind gets up. Aloha and New Dawn, unfortunately, are on the other side of the garden facing almost north.
I have learned a lesson and it really pretty much serves me right that my garden has been so damaged. Time and again I see gardening programmes where it tells you to tie in your plants in the case of wind and, yes, I do to a degree but obviously not well enough. I've been out this morning and shut the barn door after the horses have bolted.
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| Bedraggled raspberry canes. |