It's been a cold & wet June & climate change is affecting gardening, but the roses in the UK are still blooming beautifully & everywhere seems to be clothed in these beauties that epitomise the ideal of a summer garden. I had the joy of travelling to Mottisfont National Trust Rose Gardens to see the manager of the shop, Sophie, who has stocked our Precious Earth as an organic feed for roses. Our boxes looked so gorgeous in among the roses & are perfect for them.
At Mottisfont, they have a collection of over 1,000 roses; some of them the oldest known like the Damascus Rose and the Apothecary Rose & the gardens are such an important place for preserving these heritage varieties. Many of these roses have gone out of fashion as they only bloom once in the year in June, unlike modern varieties that can flower sometimes for months.
However, walking into the walled gardens and seeing the absolute beauty of these flowers and being assailed by the scents in the air is a euphoric experience! Scientists have shown that smelling flowers releases endorphins in your brain that then help combat depression, anxiety, stress, fatigue & more. If everyone had access to a rose garden, how much happier & healthier would we be?
What I love about Mottisfont is that they are caring for the roses using organic methods, no fungicides & allowing the old fashioned roses to turn into rosehips as an important source of food for birds overwinter. This is wonderful to experience & I am delighted that our Precious Earth boxes are available for people when they buy their roses at the garden centre, so that they too can grow them organically. Not many gardeners have access to compost heaps, wormeries, Soil Association approved organic manures or all the beneficial microbiology that is needed to benefit their plants. What we have created is all this and more. It's simple to use & can be stored in our resealable biodegradable bags inside the boxes to use again whenever your rose needs a boost.
We are so used to an ideal of perfection when it comes to roses that many people feel they have to use all sorts of chemicals to keep them like this. Sadly then, the repercussions for bumblebees, ladybirds, hoverflies & more, are disastrous: as well as for birdlife. Somehow, we need to find a way of enjoying the perfection that is the natural balance of nature: the bluebird fledgelings fed by their parents on the greenfly, the ladybirds in abundance clearing up the rest, the bees happily pollinating roses (that are not so overcultivated that there is no access available to do so), the occasional black spot & roses dying & turning into hips to feed the birds. It's all part of the cycle that we are part of. When we stand outside of it & decide that we will annihilate everything that might pose a threat to our prize rose, we then become the ultimate threat.
There are only a handful of growers of roses around the world that do this organically from the start. Hopefully, as more people realise the importance of this, for our health & for the natural world, this will increase. What we have created at Gaia's Garden is our organic Precious Earth; a Mother Culture that will give your roses everything they need for a healthy start. This gives them access to organic nutrients, helps enhance their immune systems so they can better withstand diseases, moulds & stress from drought & flooding. It can be added directly to the roots ( a couple of handfuls) when you first pot up your new rose or plant it in the ground. This will help your rose to recover quickly from this happening & you will soon see the difference in its' shine & vitality!
People who have had a rose bought from a supermarket or garden centre that has soon become sick or ill, have seen the incredible difference that a 1 cm layer applied as a top dressing around the plant & then watered in, can make in just a few days. New leaves grow, bright & shiny & the rose can start to flower again. Our recipe works by putting the plants back into a natural balance, rather than being dependent on synthetic fertilisers (created from the petroleum industry), the plants can be helped to get the nutrients they need for healthy natural growing. Our beneficial microbes work with the mychorizza to achieve this & all the goodness contained in our organically enriched biochar & wormcast can then be used by the roses to bloom beautifully.
Mother Culture is a term used for starter yeasts & in bread making as well as horticulture. At Gaia's Garden, our concentrate that we have created is this, and more. Like a good mother, it ensures that each plant has what it needs to be full of natural vitality. As a gardener & a rose lover, you will see the incredible results that will come from using this complex recipe which is so simple to use, knowing that the effects of this are not only incredibly beneficial for your roses, but for everything else within your garden. Take a moment to watch how Mother Nature can work her magic on these wonderful flowers and smell those roses!
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