Tips for growing a rose garden
Having a rose garden can add beauty and style to your home. Growing and maintaining a rose garden can be hard work but well worth the effort. You will need to know a few things about roses and how to care for them to grow beautiful healthy roses. The roses that are easiest to grow are climbing, shrub, and old garden roses. These types are a great choice if you are just beginning to grow roses. Floribundas, grandiforas, and hybrid teas are types of roses that require more work but are a larger bloom with a longer blooming period. Here are some tips to help you grow beautiful roses no matter what type:
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- Pick the best possible location. Make sure the location you have chosen for your rose garden is suitable. Roses require a lot of sun to thrive, so be sure your garden receives at least six hours of full sun each day. Roses also need a lot of space and need to be planted away from mature trees and shrubs. You should plant roses at least twice the diameter of the established plants. This is so the roses do not have to compete for water with any other plants and will also reduce the chances of disease. If it is possible it is best to plant rosebushes in an area that will receive the morning sun rather than the afternoon sun. This will reduce the risk of disease because the morning sun will dry the dew off the roses sooner than the afternoon sun.
- You can grow roses in almost any soil but they cannot tolerate poor drainage or poor aeration. If your soil is clay-like, try loosening it with a shovel down to around 18 inches below the planting depth. This will create some air spaces within the soil and will also break up a lot of the clay aggregates. If your soil is more like sand, try mixing in ¼ part composted cow manure and ¼ part peat moss. To make sure there is enough phosphorus for good root growth try adding bone meal, approximately 15 pounds per every 100 square feet. The best time to prepare the soil in your new rose bed is the fall. When you prepare your rose beds in the fall it will give soil amendments like manure and peat moss time to work before you plant your roses. This will help ensure that your roses will get a healthy start.
- Protect your roses from powdery mildew and black spot and don't forget about aphids, which are the one of the biggest enemies roses' face. Powdery mildew and black spot are fungal diseases and can hurt your roses in a short amount of time. A good preventive program is the best defense. In the late spring apply a granular systemic insecticide, which will usually contain a plant fertilizer as well. Then when the temperature starts to reach 85 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity begins to build, spray your roses with a fungicide approximately every 10 to 14 days. To maintain good air circulation, remove any debris from around the roses and it is also important to keep water off the foliage.
- Prepare your roses for winter to protect them from the freezing temperatures. You should mound up to 12 inches of soil around the rose canes. Then add another layer of protection when temperatures begin to regularly fall below freezing. Leaves, wood chips and pine straw are great to use as layers of protection. In the spring after the last frost bite, you will need to remove the protective layer to help prevent disease and also to give your roses good air circulation.
