Hints Of Life Guest Columns

Sunday reads

White roses are a symbol of purity and innocence. There’s something special about them that’s hard to explain. Maybe, it’s the rich, sweet fragrance that profusely fills the surroundings all year round, especially, in the summer. Once called the ‘bridal flower’ as they decorated every wedding before the discovery of red roses, they represents unity, young love, and new bond.

It’s no surprise there are several thousand variety of roses one can choose from, red roses being the most favorite. HOL is excited to explore the wonders of the white. Have you ever considered planting an ‘Iceberg White Rose’ as a shrub or climber in your garden or patio? Growing iceberg roses is a simple and rewarding task for both novice and veteran gardners. But before we list the steps, let’s indulge in the beauty of the iceberg white rose.

Iceberg White Rose

The ‘Iceberg’ is one of the best floribunda white rose and is extremely popular among rose lovers. They are abundantly floriferous throughout the season, producing large clusters of medium-sized, round and double flowers, with soft white petals, sometimes flushed with pale pink. Mildly fragrant, iceberg bloom continues right through the season until winter. Tall, bushy, upright, and handsomely shaped shrub with large, glossy green leaves provide an ideal backdrop for the summer-long floral display. A free flowering variety, it’s available as a bush, standard, weeping standard and as a climbing rose that is fit for clambering over pergolas or trees.

How to grow an iceberg white rose?

Follow the 5 easy steps for a successful bloom:

• Plant iceberg roses in a location that is exposed to at least six hours of direct sunlight daily to encourage healthy growth and development. Plant your iceberg roses in well-draining soil to reduce the risk of harmful fungal diseases.
• Water iceberg roses regularly throughout the growing season to keep the soil evenly moist, but never saturated. Provide your roses with 1 inch of supplemental irrigation each week in the absence of sufficient rainfall. For best results, water your iceberg roses via a soaker hose to ensure that the moisture soaks deep into the soil.
• Fertilize iceberg roses twice each growing season with a balanced, water soluble rose fertilizer to promote healthy foliage and flower growth. Apply the first application of fertilizer in the early spring to give your roses a much-needed boost of nutrients. Wait until the roses have started blooming to apply the second fertilizer application.
• Provide winter protection for iceberg roses in cold climates. Mix equal parts sandy loam and well-rotted compost until well combined. Form the mixture into a 10- to 12-inch mound around the base of your rose bush; do this before the first fall frost, if possible. Remove the mound in the early spring, as soon as you notice the buds on your iceberg roses beginning to swell. Leave 3 to 4 inches of the mound in place to serve as mulch, if desired.
• Prune iceberg roses each spring, once the leaf buds have opened. Use a pair of sharpened and sterilized pruning shears or loppers to cut out any diseased, winter-damaged or dead canes. Remove any crossing or weak canes to increase the air circulation to your roses; as lack of circulation can increase your plant’s risk of developing problems such as powdery mildew. Cut any remaining canes back by one third to encourage invigorated growth.

Today, joining us in celebrating this month’s theme ‘May flowers’ Sugandh Swani presents, ‘The May Morn Romaunt.’ Get ready to transcend into a beautiful world of poetry. As Robert Frost quotes, ‘Poetry is when an emotion has found it’s thought and the thought has found words.”

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The May Morn Romaunt

By Sugandh Swani

A walk down the street on a sunny May Morn,
There is a yellow carpet under my feet,
An intricate work of art by those golden chain trees,
The luscious lively Laburnum sweating in the heat.

A few steps further, a butterfly on red,
Flutters her way around the flowering fest,
As hibiscus shrubs shyly swoon to the breeze,
Celebrating the little bug’s zeal and zest.

A gentle giant flower, welcomes me with grace,
Grabbed by grandeur, a touch I can’t escape.
A mighty rose that whispered, “Mon Amour”,
Wearing captivating colour in a never-ending cape.

And there is the fresh fragrance,
Of the beautiful Jasmine on green,
Sitting like a string of ravishing white pearls,
Almost enchanting like a decorative dream.

Aaaahh! And now I am lost in pure love,
Of the purple and pink and orange and white,
Of these bright bougainvillea bushes everywhere,
Taking over the city with all their might.

And I take back with me a dash of colour,
As I walk home only to treasure this moment,
For the May flowers miss our admiring eyes,
Praying to heal the world in their rosy romaunt.

Sugandh Swani is a Public Relations professional and a poet at heart. To know more about her poetic endeavors follow @sugandhswani on instagram and twitter.

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