Summer Border

The long herbaceous border in the Rose Garden is looking wonderful at the moment. At the top end nearest to the Quarry the pink Phlox and orange Alstromeria are in full bloom. Many of the Geraniums are starting to go over now, only to be replaced by the Sedums and other late Summer flowering perenniels.

 About halfway up the border all the Leucanthemums are opening their bright white daisy flowers. There are huge swathes of them which make a real impact. In contrast you can see this impressive Veronica, its blue flowers standing like candles, which are highly attractive to bees and hoverflies. Nestled close to this is Lychnis Coronaria. The cerise blooms above silver foliage complement the Veronica beautifully.                            

In this photograph you can get a feel for the length of the border; the cerise flowers of the Lychnis Coronaria are punctuating it at intervals. At the back of the border the Philadelphus is arching over with a mass of orange blossom scented white flowers. The Sedum is visible in the foreground.

Phase 3 Rose Planting

 After lots of hard digging to prepare four large beds for replanting, the Friends gathered in the Rose Garden on Saturday 19th March 2016. All the new bare root roses had been delivered the day before and the weather was ideal. After a dry week the soil was much more pleasant for the task  of replanting up the four rose beds. The roses going in this time were orange roses called Fellowship and white roses called Pride and Prejudice. Also some white roses called Silver 25th Anniversary.



The scouts and other youth groups had prior engagements so it was a real team effort to get all the roses planted. We worked hard and by 11.15 am the first bed was completed. After a short tea break, we cracked on and managed to plant up two more beds before stopping for a late lunch.

Here in the picture on the right  you can see our refreshment table . Some of us used wheelbarrows to pile mushroom compost onto the beds prior to planting, others assisted greatly by dipping the bare root roses in a Miccorrhyzal  
solution before passing them to the diggers as soon as a hole was ready. All this team effort meant quite an efficient system and all four new beds were finished by 3.15pm.




We still had some orange roses spare so decided to plant them in another bed of orange/red roses where there were lots of gaps. Although we were starting to tire, we carried on and all the bare root roses were in the ground by 4.30pm.

Many passers by spoke to us as we worked. One couple joined the Friends group and another young girl walking through handed us a £10 donation towards our Rose Appeal.

Rose Buddies.

As you may be aware, the Friends have launched a rose appeal in order to raise funds to re-stock many of the rose beds. A few weekends ago we carried out phase two of our planting, which means that so far 19 of the 42 rose beds have been planted up with new roses. There is still a lot of work ahead of us, but we are already planning phase three in March of 2016.
One important fact we must not overlook is that our job is not over just because the roses are planted. In order to flower to their full potential and remain healthy, roses do require some maintenance at different times of the year. Pruning early in the year, deadheading during the Summer months and weeding around them.

 It is with this in mind that we are proposing the idea of Rose Buddies.

People who are willing to team up and look after a particular rose bed.The Friends would ensure your rose bed was cleared of weeds to begin with, so this would not require a vast amount of time or effort, and each set of "buddies" could arrange between themselves times suitable to them.
It could just mean bringing secateurs and a bag while taking an evening stroll in the Summer, to deadhead a few roses. It might mean pulling out the odd weed that appears. We can provide advice on pruning and deadheading. You could use it as a quiet time to chat with a friend while tidying your rose bed. You can choose your own buddy, or we could find you one .
If anyone is interested in being a "Rose Buddy" please could you use the contact form on the right.

Phase Two Rose Planting.

Despite less than ideal weather conditions, the weekend of 14th and 15th November was arranged for the second phase of rose planting.  520 bare-root rose bushes needed to be planted. The Friends had already cleared and prepared five rose beds for replanting. We began work on the two beds adjacent to the central path. The roses for these two beds were red ones called 40th Ruby Wedding Anniversary. Many young volunteers came to help, especially on the Saturday. They were cubs, beavers and scouts from the 64th Birkenhead Sea Scout group, accompanied by their leader.  There was also Emma Murphy, a member of the Viking Explorers, who worked solidly all morning. Another young helper, Liam Roberts-Bica, was volunteering as part of his silver Duke of Edinburgh award.
The weather was rapidly worsening, however, we still had three more beds to plant up.  The Friends had set up a gazebo for shelter and served hot and cold drinks and biscuits to help keep spirits up. The next two beds were to be planted with white roses called 25th Silver Wedding Anniversary.  All the roses had been purchased with money donated to the Friends Rose Appeal. They had come from a company in Buckinghamshire called Chessum Roses. Each bare-root rose had its roots immersed in a solution of Rootgrow, a mycorrhizal fungi, to help them establish quickly and create healthy root systems over the winter. Hopefully this will get them off to a flying start come next Spring.
Four beds were completed by half past one on Saturday. It was raining quite heavily at this point so we decided to call it a day and continue on the Sunday.

Luckily Sunday morning was dry. Many of us returned to the Rose Garden to plant up the remaining roses. These were also white, a strongly scented variety called Margaret Merril. We had fewer volunteers on the Sunday, but a lady from the allotments on Storeton Road came to help us, together with her daughter and granddaughters, who were a wonderful help dunking the roses and passing them to the hole diggers. With such efficiency, the fifth rose bed was completed in just over an hour and we could head off home for a well deserved rest. A huge thank you to all those who braved the cold and wet, showing great enthusiasm, to help plant all 520 new rose bushes.

Raising the Flag.

Cllr. Pat Williams displaying the flag.

Although the weather was miserable and damp, The Friends of the Arno and Oxton Fields met in the Rose Garden at 10am on Saturday the 24th October to once again raise the Green Flag awarded for 2015/16.

Finally raised.

Members of the Friends getting wet for a good cause.

We had been visited by the Green flag inspector earlier in the Summer. It was a gorgeous sunny day and his visit coincided with a group of children from Devonshire Park Primary School using the Arno Rose Garden and Quarry for their minibeast project. There were also joggers, dog walkers and some Mums and toddlers enjoying a picnic. This all helped to portray this as a popular, well used green space.  He was keen for us to encourage and develop people's interest in native flora and fauna. The inspector was pleased to hear of our Facebook and Website and especially positive about our rose appeal as he appreciated that we were keeping the tradition of the rose garden alive, where many others have been replaced with shrubs or flowers.

Despite the increasingly wet weather, some of us equipped ourselves with gloves, bin bags and grot grabbers and headed off to collect litter from both the Quarry, Rose Garden and Oxton Fields. 

New roses all abloom.

The new roses that the Friends planted as bare root bushes earlier this year are looking vibrant and healthy. The yellow Arthur Bell roses on the left bed have a wonderful strong perfume, making it a real pleasure to weed among them.
In the background you can also see the other two main beds which we planted up at the same time. In the foreground one of the newly planted circular beds can also be seen flowering .

Looking from the other side of the Rose Garden across towards the long border, you can see the Margaret Merrill white roses and the Little Princess pink roses. They are on the shadier side of the garden and are a little behind. These pictures were taken during the dry spell. Hopefully some heavy showers will do them all good.
Work has already begun on preparing some triangular beds for replanting this coming November with money kindly donated to our Rose Appeal.

Spring has arrived.

Our volunteers have finally completed all the rose pruning. This was a huge task as many of the more mature roses were congested with old, dead stems which needed to be cut out. We are still urging people to support our Rose Appeal so that we can restock more beds in the Autumn. During July we hope to organise some time for volunteers to meet to deadhead the rose bushes after their first flush of flowers to prolong the season.  I have created a collage to show which shrubs and perennials are at their finest at the moment. You can see Berberis, Forsythia, Rhododendron, Erysimum Bowles Mauve,Pulmonaria, Comfrey and forget-me-nots. There are also many wallflowers and Lunaria annua just opening. Come along and see for yourself.