Lots of people enjoy roses but are often reluctant to grow them in their yard because of the high maintenance reputation. This article is dedicated to helping make roses easier to grow and enjoy. Our area is great for Roses; warm summers, low humidity, fabulously draining soil, water is available and generally are winters are not too cold for them. Below are some tips that I use to keep my own Roses in the yard happy and low maintenance. As well as rose catalogs, our 2012 Rose selection and videos on rose care.
Spacing-First don't jam them too tight against other roses or plants. You will get cut up trying to winter prune them or simply remove spent flowers (deadhead). Also space promotes good airflow to dry the foliage and keeps fungal spores from colonizing the foliage. To space them properly use that roses height as a guide for its width and then add another 1 to space them properly in a bed, for example if a rose grows to 3 to 4 feet tall give 3 to 4 feet then give it a circle are that is 4 to 5 wide and its center 2 to 2.5 feet from another plant or rose. Good spacing also allows beneficial insects and birds access to eat nuisance pests. Or if need be better access to spray the roses.
Exposure-Roses like to be in the sun for at least six hours a day, preferably more sunlight the better and in the afternoon to help them dry off as well as the warmer soil and air encourages more growth and flowers. I have found Roses struggle in afternoon shade gardens: the air and ground is cooler; airflow is restricted by what is shading the area; and the it nuisance pests a place to harbor.
Watering-Roses like a good, deep drink of water on a regular basis. It doesn't have to be daily, the soil just has to be moist 12 inches down consistently. This allows roses to growth and flower vigorously and tolerate hot winds. If the leaves are scorched or burned in summer time you need to be adding more water because they are dehydrated. Roses, when grown for color not competition, can be watered by overhead sprinklers just make sure that the roses goes into the night with dry foliage. Roses on drip systems do great too!
Feeding-Rose are heavy feeders and need to be fed regularly. Roses also prefer a slightly acidic soil (which we don't have) so when choosing a fertilizer choose a fertilizer with sulfur in it. Slow Release Fertilizer Blends for Roses, Rhodies, and Evergreens work great for roses, these types of fertilizers are granulated or organic. Feed as directed on the label of what you choose, but remember to feed the roses. Now another way to feed but prevent insects is to feed with a Rose food with Systemic Insecticide. That way aphids aren't a problem, generally these you apply every 6 to 8 weeks. I prefer the granulated forms of these instead of the liquids because its faster to apply!
Summer Pruning-To promote lots of blooms you need to trim some types of roses frequently while others are not dependent on pruning to bloom. Long stem roses (Hybrid Teas) need a to be trimmed every 2 to 4 weeks to prevent them from getting leggy and to bloom more. Floribunda, Shrub, Climbing, David Austin, and other English Roses can benefit from a monthly deadhead. However you can stretch this and still get blooms and the plant maintains its shape. Miniature and Ground cover roses are self cleaning which means they keep blooming without needing to be trimmed and with their profusion of flowers its a good thing to only have sheer them back in the fall!
Finally Choosing disease resistant varieties is also a good idea to reduce maintenance. Rose varieties belonging to the Home Run, Easy Elegance, Knock Rose Series are good for this, however any rose variety with glossy, shiny foliage is also disease resistant. With this tidbit you have a great selection to choose easy care roses.
Also to keep our colder winters from destroying your roses remember to mulch them follow this link to read more about this.
Here is more information on Roses
Job's 2012 Rose Selection
Weeks 2012 Rose Catalog
Star Roses 2012 Catalog
Easy Elegance Roses
David Austin Roses
Mulching Roses for Winter Video
Pruning Roses for late Winter Video
February is a good time to prepare for spring projects. Last month was planing, this month is preparing for the next growing season. First off lets talk about pruning this is a great time to work those fruit trees, grapes, and summer flowering shrubs back into shape. A hard winter prune for these types of plants is like a spa day for them. It reinvigorates them! For fruit trees, grapes, blackberries and rose an annual heavy prune works best. For Summer flowering plants like Spiraea, Potentilla, Butterfly Bushes and others is every 3 to 4 years. This keeps the plants from becoming woody, rough looking as it stimulates new fresh growth and blooms. Below in the second article I go over which plants what to do with them.
February is a great month to do some heavy pruning on a few plants. Need to size something, rejuvenate it or simply clean it up; this is the time of year to do it. Here is the list of plants that could use a trim.
