ROSE CARE EXPLAINED

By Pat Sheriden

With just a bit of patience and a good knowledge base, caring for roses can not only be simple, it can be extremely rewarding as well. Roses are the royalty of the floral world, and many weekend gardeners enjoy the efforts they put into maintaining the rose beds in their own yards.

To keep roses looking their most beautiful, there are some simple but important maintenance requirements that all gardeners must heed. Luckily, these steps are easy enough for beginners to pick up quickly, and in no time even first-time rose growers can compete with a seasoned gardener in the beauty of their rose beds.

Beginning with location, choosing the best spot to plant your roses is extremely important. Roses need a minimum of six hours of sunlight every day to thrive. Morning sun is your best option, since you might want to protect them from mid summer’s most scorching midday rays.

Watering your roses, as with any plants, is critical to achieving positive results. Roses have very simple, but very specific watering requirements, so stick to them and your roses will blossom beautifully all season long. Since roses have deep root systems, you need to get the water to the roots – that means deep watering twice a week, for a total of an inch of water weekly. Surface watering will not benefit your roses, as it will not reach the root system. Even if your water reaches the subsoil, your roses will be able to derive nourishment from it.

Keep in mind too that when the roots find water deep in the soil, the roots themselves will grow deeper, which provides a natural defense against surface drought or other above ground weather extremes.
Keeping the soil fertilized is also important. If you’re using good soil to begin with – that is, soil that is not sandy, has a low clay content, and is capable of providing good drainage, you may not need to fertilize your roses more than twice a year.

Native bacteria and other organisms that occur naturally in soil provide exactly the kind of nourishment on which roses thrive. Fertilizers can interfere with the balance of these natural components, actually killing them off and resulting in roses that are reliant on inorganic fertilizers. Gardeners who make this mistake end up feeding their roses a constant diet of fertilizer to replace what’s been lost in the soil.

Start with an organic, slow-release fertilizer when you perform the first pruning in the spring, before any budding begins to take place. This will give your roses a boost, and nature will take over from here. In the fall, after the final blooms have died and just before the plants go into their dormant winter phase. With the exception of the pre-winter helping, it is important not to fertilize after midsummer.

Pruning in spring is an important task, as it should serve as the main pruning event of the season. Spring pruning helps deliver the plant from its winter hibernation, and encourages all the natural events necessary to promote new growth. During the flowering season, pruning the blooms after the flowers have started to deteriorate makes room for new blossoms, and keeps your roses flowering all season.

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