Sierra Foothills Rose Society offers free workshop with expert hands-on advice
In a previous workshop, Baldo Villegas demonstrates his pruning technique while Charlotte Owendyk assists and holds the microphone. Courtesy Sierra Foothills Rose Society
Need to sharpen your pruning skills? Here’s a great opportunity to learn how to prune your roses faster and better – and taste some great chili, too.
On Saturday, Jan. 13, the Sierra Foothills Rose Society will host its annual Winter Care Workshop for Roses, featuring master rosarians Baldo Villegas, Linda Knowles and Charlotte Owendyk. To be held at the Orangevale Grange Auditorium, the free workshop starts at 8:30 a.m. with registration. The seminar starts at 9 a.m. and includes hands-on practice as well as demonstrations.
“Practice under the watchful eye of experienced rosarians who prune hundreds of their own roses,” say the organizers. “When you leave, you will confidently prune your roses!”
Make that “thousands” of roses; Baldo grows more than 3,000 bushes at his Orangevale home.
Proper pruning produces more and bigger flowers. It also helps reinvigorate rose bushes and makes for a healthier garden with less if any pesticides.
The morning-long session wraps up with a chili cookoff at 12:30 p.m. Participants vote for the best chili while also having an opportunity to get advice from the society’s rose experts one on one.
Highlight of this workshop is always Baldo’s demonstration of his “Three-Minute Pruning Method.” He’ll show how to prune a full-size hybrid tea in three minutes – and often less – by looking at the plant from the base up. By identifying the canes to keep first, the job becomes much simpler.
Instructors also will share advice on pruning tools as well as how to control pests and diseases in the garden (an important part of why we prune roses every year).
No advance registration is needed and the public is welcome. Bring gloves and bypass pruners.
Orangevale Grange is located at 5807 Walnut Ave., Orangevale.
For more on Sierra Foothills Rose Society: www.sierrafoothillsrosesociety.org.
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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