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Articles Shirley King's beautiful roses grow on a metal trellis that she placed around her front door. They are absolutely breath taking to look at! I can't wait until they bloom this spring!
Here are a few tips for growing stunning roses of your own.
1. Location, location, location!
Most roses require at least 6 hours of full sun a day. There are just a few that can tolerate some shade. Be sure that the location you choose for your roses has sun and is well drained! Roses need lots of water but they can not tolerate soggy soil. If left in undrained soggy soil, the roots will rot! I know this from first hand experience!
2. Slow Release Fertilizer.
Nurserymen and growers have been uing slow release fertilizer for years for several very good reasons. One application provides the correct nutrients to the rose bush throughout the season and it's so time-saving. You can buy slow release fertilizer uch as "Osmacote", in most garden stores. It looks lik tiny balls of clay coated with a water soluble outer skin. Whe mixed with soil and water the skin dissolves and the fertilizer starts to work... slowly. This then provides the rquired nutrients for up to five months. Great for container roses where only a tablespoonful or so would be required, to full size bushes where a handful would be appropriate.... once only, in the early spring. I love some of the new products that are a systemic fertilizer that control insects and fungus also.
2. Finger Pruning.
A simple procedure that is guaranteed to improve the look of you bushes and increase the size of the blooms and all you need is a pair of garden gloves. The process is simple. As buds appear on stems, you will botice which direction they are going to send ut the new growth. If it's going to be a new stem that cuts horizontally across the centre of the bush, rub it off with your thumb. This keeps the open, vase shape of the bush. Keep the outward growing and remove the inward. The other thing to do is remove unwanted baby buds. Thi is particularly true wih tea roses or floribundas. Often the erly baby buds are overcrowded and growing into each other. Remove a few and let those that remain grow even bigger... and always remove the center one, as it matures first and you end up with a dead bloom in the center of four or five half opened ones. Do this when the buds are new, green and soft enough to pinch out.
4. Dead Heading.
Everyone knows this one but few people do it! Removing the dead blooms in a timely fashion not only makes the bush look good but it promotes more blooms. Leaving them on, acts as a signal to the bush that the end of the blooming season has arrived and the production of hips is to start. You don't want this to happen until the fall, so remove the dying blooms. Cut them just below the he, without removing any leaves which the bush needs. Then when the stem has lost all it's bloos, take it down to the next new growth point, at about a short arms length...and make sure the new growth point is pointing outwards. Cut at an outward angle and this will promote new growth from jujst below the cut.
5. Liquid Organic Fertilizer. Every two weeks you should apply a weak solution of organic liquid fertilizer, especially if your roses are in containers. Use this fertilizerat half strength. Check the label carefully and use at half the recommended dosage! Heavy watering and rain wash nutrients through the soil so they have to be replaced and this includes foliage feeding. Most roses enjoy a drenching o weak liquid organic fertilizer to keep them fresh and healthy.
6. Water, water, water.
Water long and deeply two or three times a week unless your roses are in containers, then you need to water daily. Remember the general rule: watering a rose bed for one hour soaks to a depth of 1 inch! If you can install under-bed soaker hoses so much the better. Remember, roses do not like undrained soggy soil so make sure your soil drains well prior to planting. Where I live, roses are extremely susceptable to fungus! Overhead watering can promote it by allowing the leaves to stay wet. If you do water overhead, do it in the morning so the leaves can dry in the heat of the mid-day sun.
7. Spraying for fungus.
In my area of the United States, roses are very suseptable to fungus. I begin spraying with a fungicide as soon as the leaves appear and continue this regimine through out the growing season . A good fungicide will have instructions on how often to apply, usually about every two weeks or so.
Though growing roses can be a time consuming hobby, there are no other plants quite like the queen of flowers. They can produce elegant blooms from early spring until frost depending on the variety. One of the most popular flowers, the rose is perhaps the most rewarding of all types of garden flowers!
I f you would like us to feature your garden or romantic cottage home on our website, email us your pictures in a file at myroseretreat@yahoo.com
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