Re: Rose roots, Willow Water (and sheep)

**"Rosenlund" rosenlund@transport.com>**

Hi Jim and other rose lovers,

I hear ya, Jim... Me father is of Irish blood and he saved 4 roses from
his family.  One of these have been in the family for 100+ years.  :-)
['Apothecary Rose']   Father pasted away (too young) early this year, but
I'm blessed to have a bit of each of his roses in my garden.

I LOVE the old large roses, they are wonderful.  Huge amounts of lovely
foliage that look great even when not in bloom, but in Bloom... WOW....
I'm very fond of the Alba group.

YES, you need to have this rose, a delightful keepsake for years to come.
:-)

I take a shovel FULL (about 1/5) or as much as the shrub can spare.
I dig a good amount of roots under this shovel full, Careful to not fully
harm the original rose.  Then prune the canes to 2-3 feet and soak for
12-24 hours in a bucket of water or *Willow water, plant in good soil
and water daily for several weeks.

NOT every rose can be done thusly, such as Hybrid Tea roses as
of course it has a root stock of another variety, but many of the old roses
with age can be "divided".

*Willow water is 1 inch cut willow branches (new growth) steeping in HOT
water and cover for about 12 hours.  Interestingly my father did this as a
young boy too.  Willow can help rooting new roses or cuttings in
propagation.

Do let me know how your rose does!

[ some OFF TOPIC~reply]
>What do you do with the sheep?

I assist their birthings in the Spring, raising them for meat and wool.
I'm a handspinner and weaver (though gardening has taken over my
life recently) and I knit handspun wool into socks.  I sell my natural
colored wools to other handspinners.

This Spring I had 16 lambs ALL black and now turned a Darkest
of lovely brown. Good ram and lovely fleeces.

>Hope they don't eat your roses.

Only when the gates were left open... usually about the time I'm tilling up
the vegetable garden area.  No Serious damage, but I've lost some lovely
buds over them rascles.  Thankfully for many of the old roses that's just a
dent in their abundant blooms.

I do have to plant my new roses 2-3 feet from the fences to keep the sheep
from eating them.  Once the roses grow good I'll let the sheep do the outer
pruning.  My gaurd llama (keeps the coyotes off the lambs) is the worst as
he can reach OVER the fences.

I feed my prunings (those I don't propagate) to the sheep.  They in turn
fill (well, not exactly fill) my barn with composting material that I give
back to the roses.  So in an "ideal" world, it's a good plan.  :-)

I've read where Deer saliva on roses may actually "stimulate" the old roses
to even more vigour.  I'm sure there is a limit and sheep aren't easily
trained, though they do have "come" (whistle and a bread bag) and "go"
(click, "haw") down well.  :-P

                ~Carleen~
Keeper of Sheep and Old Roses

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