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4 tips for caring for Roses

Caring for your rose bushes

When I went to the nursery to buy my roses, the person who helped me used to look after the roses that the nursery used to enter in flower competitions, before they had sold that part of the business. It’s an adjoining restaurant, where I got married. You can see a photo of it in my post entitled “Wedding Photography in South Africa – Review“. Unfortunately you can’t see much because it’s a night shot.

Anyway… When he was helping me pack the roses into my car, I asked him for his top tip on caring for roses. He gave me his top tip, and added another, and added another… So I thought I’d compile his best tips for caring for roses.
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Some Valentines Day ideas

There seems to be a large number of people reading this site looking for ideas for Valentines Day due to these articles I have:

Valentines Day Gift Ideas for Women
Valentines Day Gift Ideas for Men
Decorating The Home With Valentines Day Decor

Well, in the spirit of my “Gifts for my Mother In Law” post, I’d like to tell you about 3 things that I did for Valentines Day over the years, which I think were big hits, and HOPEFULLY they will inspire you this year.
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Rose Garden – Dig your hole and plant a rose

Digging the holes in the soil After you’ve relaxed a bit, having spent a decent amount of time watering your rose garden soil thoroughly, you can get to the “not so relaxing” yet entirely satisfying process of digging the holes and planting your roses.

Here are a few guidelines, along with what I did:

– Space your roses at least half a meter apart, preferably slightly more than this
– Dig the hole deep enough that the roots will be completely covered when planted, and add another 5 cms depth to the hole
– Line the hole with Rose compost (a special compost specific to roses that helps keep the roots moist and warm in the winter)
– Put your rose bush into the hole
– Fill in the hole using more of the rose compost and soil
– Pat down the soil so that the ground is a little firm, but not too air-tight. Just enough so that the rose bush has good support
– Water, water, water… Ok, not too much so that you drown your roses, but the soil must be slightly more than just damp.

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Rose Garden – Water, water, water

Watering your roses is essential, so water them well
The number 1 tip for roses that I received when buying my roses was: Make sure you water them

So, when planting your roses in your newly prepared garden, make sure the soil is completely wet. I’m saying that you should do this at this stage because if you dig the holes first and THEN wet the soil, you might have to dig your holes again. So, give the soil a LOT of water.

You will still have to water your roses straight after planting, though, so don’t go packing that hose-pipe away just yet. 😉

Make sure you water your rose garden well to get healthy roses

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Creating a Rose Garden

Everybody loves roses, right? So I decided to add a rose garden to my garden. In the next few articles, I’ll show you what I did, and give you all the tips for caring for roses that I picked up from the Rose Garden specialist who sold me the roses.

As I write the articles, I’ll add a link to the bottom of this article as an index/reference point for all my Rose Garden articles… Perhaps bookmark this page so you can come back to it, and maybe see how my garden is going, as I plan on posting updates and lessons learned as I go along. Of course, if you have any of your own experiences, thoughts or ideas to share, please leave a comment.

Anyway, wish me luck. 😉

Creating a rose garden and looking after roses

Rose Garden Article Index:

Rose Garden – Plot out and prepare the area
Rose Garden – Water, water, water
Rose Garden – Dig your hole and plant a rose
4 tips for caring for Roses

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Homemade Fly Trap

I’ve spoken to many people who’ve wanted to know how to make a homemade fly trap.

Some of them didn’t even realise how easy it was. And, because most people tend to have the ingredients already, it can be cheaper than the cheap fly traps from Builder’s Warehouse or Amazon.com (check out these traps on Amazon, some starting from $4! – Amazon.com Fly Traps).

So, are you curious as to how to make one?

What you need:

Empty 2 litre plastic coke bottle
1.5 cups of water
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of vinegar
+/- 1m of string
Small piece of meat (OPTIONAL)
Serving spoon of Syrup (OPTIONAL)
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Getting rid of Mosquitos – an interesting attempt

Getting rid of mosquitosI went to a restaurant the other day, and we sat outside. Very nice for a summer’s evening in South Africa. The only problem is that we tend to have mosquitoes. But at this restaurant we noticed that they had put bowls of Vinegar all over the place. Apparently it helps keep the mozzie population back outside and away from the vinegar.

I’ve tried it, and it doesn’t seem to work TOO well, but if anybody has any other ideas for keeping mozzies at bay, PLEASE let me know…

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Great Cooldrink Idea

Energade with sparkling water is a great healthy fizzy drinkJust a little something that I’d like to share… I really enjoy Energade, but sometimes I crave fizzy drinks… Well, what I do is mix Energade with Sparkling Mineral Water (personally, I like the Woolworths Sparkling Water). Almost gives it a Lucozade feel. 😉

I know my mother enjoys mixing tonic water with orange juice, but I’m not really into that one…

Do you have any other combinations for cold drinks that people might like?

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Best Christmas Party Idea Ever

Need an idea for a Christmas party? It’s not an expensive Christmas party, though it definitely won’t seem like a CHEAP Christmas party…

In South Africa, we don’t say barbeque, we say braai, (pronounced like “guy”, but with a “br” instead of a “g” ;-)), and a popular thing to do when having a lot of people around is to have a bring and braai. This is when people bring their own meat and drinks, and the host supplies the salads, deserts, and the utensils, and everybody has a great time…
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