What could be better than a bowl of roses, picked from your garden, in your living room?
Roses are flourishing all over greater Durban, tended by homeowners and part-time gardeners. But for those who are too busy or don’t have the know how, there are the likes of Stuart Bastow.
Bastow is becoming known as Durban North’s “Mr Roses”. Retrenched in 2008, he was faced with the problem of finding work. Having been a rose grower for more than 30 years and inspired by his mother Jeanne, a career in roses was an obvious choice. His friend and mentor, Ken Braum, had a rose maintenance business and had taught him the art of rose growing.
“Try roses,” was his advice as Bastow pondered his future.
Bastow finished work on July 31 and called on his first rose client on August 1.
“Word spread and the business grew and soon I was maintaining rose bushes all over the North Durban area. Today I have three helpers and I maintain just over 3 000 rose bushes. Being retrenched was the best thing that ever happened to me – I have the best job in the world as I get to work with my passion – roses.”
Roses are high maintenance, says Bastow, and climate warming has made them more so. Our humid coastal climate is not too rose-friendly and rose-growers have to be ever vigilant about fungi, powdery and downy mildew, black spot and harmful pests like red spider, aphids and thrips. Early detection of pests and regular spraying is vital for the survival of a rose garden. But don’t lose heart, you can grow beautiful roses in Durban, says Bastow.
The best thing you can do for your roses is water, water, water, he says.
“They are waterholics and will get yellow leaves if there is inadequate water. Roses need to be deadheaded two to three times a week which results in lush new blooms. The soil should be fertilised monthly and there must be seasonal pruning.”
Buy good quality plants from a reputable nursery.
Roses flourish in full sun but will do well as long as they get about five hours of sunlight a day.
The rewards of a well tended rose garden are enormous and while Bastow works in clients’ gardens five, sometimes six, days a week, he works on his own roses, which number around 500, on Sundays. A bowl of blooms of assorted colours fills his lounge with a beautiful fragrance – and when they die in a week or so, he simply picks another bunch. “It’s an endless delight,” he says. - Daily News