Rose Gardeners

How to Care for Your Roses

Taking proper care of your roses can seem like a very taxing, and time consuming thing to do, but the results of such care far more than make up for it. Unfortunately, roses are the most difficult flower to manage and keep healthy; however, all good things require high maintenance.

There are many small things that have to be done to keep your roses looking their best, but all of those small things add up to one very large one. Here are some great tips for the regular upkeep of your roses.

1. You should prune your roses in the early spring. Or at least once the others start budding because the buds will eventually become new branches later.

2. You should cut the dead and damaged branches first. Next, you should cut all but five of the leftover healthy branches. They should end up at about the thickness of a pencil.

3. Cut the bushes by approximately one third or one half, depending on how tall you want them. Cutting above the outward facing buds, Which is the buds that is on the outside of the rose bush because this will help the bud to grow upward; which will make the center of the bud open up for better air circulation and shape.

4. You should always sharpen your hand shears before pruning, and prune the climbing roses with caution. The branches have a tendency to overlap and you wouldn´t want to prune the wrong branches.

5. Mulching is necessary because it helps to keep your maintenance down a bit. Mulching requires your roses to need a lot less watering, weeding and helps prevent diseases. The best mulches are organic ones like wood chips, pine needles, and grass clippings.

6. Protect your roses during the winter months by adding a few extra inches of soil to the base of your roses. This should provide the extra needed heat in the winter.

7. You should avoid the white plastic cones when doing your winter protection because they trap too much heat during the winter thaw. They are also quite unattractive.

8. You should feed your roses water often, but lightly. When you water your roses, avoid directly watering the foliage because it will cause fungal diseases. You should water the roses at the roots.

9. Keep the area around your roses cleared to prevent them from getting locked in an area that doesn´t provide enough circulation.

Watering Your Roses
 Watering your roses can be a tricky thing. It is one of the most important aspects of taking care of your roses. Roses need almost as much water to stay healthy as people do. Of course there are quite a few things that must be considered before you water your roses. They are as follows:

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· Like people, roses need more water during the hotter weather than during the colder ones. Heat makes the soil dry faster and the roses get “thirstier”.

· Keep in mind that even during the rainier times, roses still need to be watered with fresh water because rain alone cannot provide the right amount of moisture for your roses.

· You want to water your roses in a manner that goes deep enough into the surrounding soil so that it reaches the roots. Try going approximately 45cm deep.

· You do not want to water the petals directly or the canes because it can cause fungal disease in your roses.

· To help you lower the risk of your roses getting diseases, mulch is a nice way to keep the soil moist, without allowing all of the fungal problems that too much moisture can cause.

· Watering your roses in the morning also helps to dry the dew off of the leaves.

· Once your roses are fully established, you should water them once a week. You should do it twice a week if its in the hotter months.

Fertilizing Your roses
It is really important to fertilize your roses. That is how your roses get their much needed nutrients. Roses are much like people in the things that they need in order to remain healthy. Just like people they need water and food (fertilizer).

Most types of roses have to be fertilized frequently to keep them growing at a fast pace. You should fertilize with a fertilizer that is slow to release like fish emulsion or Osmocote at planting time. Be certain to follow the instructions properly from the label.

Avoid over fertilizing during the winter because by trying to promote new growth in the winter will make your roses more available to freeze damage.
 
Important Tip: You should never fertilize plants that are heat or water stressed. Water stressed plants that grow under a lot of heat will cause leaf and bud burn.

You want a steady temperature of approximately 70-80 degrees because your plants will get the most nutrients that are available to the plants. During the growing season, you can give the plants a water soluble fertilizer every two weeks.

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Pruning Your Roses
Pruning your roses is one of the most needed and the most annoyingly difficult tasks that goes with proper rose care. It takes a steady hand the proper procedure to ensure the best possible roses that you can get.

Pruning your roses is basically the act of getting rid of dead and damaged pieces, and teaching the new growth to grow in the correct outward facing direction. That just means that you are training them to grow facing the outside of the shrub or bush. This gives your roses the correct amount of circulating air to thrive in.

Here is a list of the proper techniques to guide through the pruning process.

· Soak your pruning shears in equal parts of water and bleach. This will help to protect your roses from diseases and insects.

· Pruning in the early spring, just after the snow melts is best. However you want to do it before any new growth appears. The best time would be when the buds are swelled, or red.

· Hand shears are the best tool for pruning the smaller branches. (about 4 ½ inches thick) Loppers are best for the branches that are thicker or the thickness of a pencil. This will make it easier. You should use a heavy pair of rose gloves to avoid the thorns.

· You want to get rid of the winter protection that you set up like cones, burlap, and mounded soil.

· You want to get rid of the dead wood first. (That would be the black wood that is black inside as well as out).

· Next, you wan to get rid of the thinner wood, which is the stems that are thinner than a pencil.

· Cut all of the branches that cross or overlap one another because these are often diseased or will become so.

· Keep the remaining five healthy branches. These are often dark green. You will want to make your roses fluted or vases shaped, with an open center, and keep them from touching or overlapping each other.

· Cut your healthy canes to be about one to four feet long, or whatever size that you prefer.

· Cut you roses properly so that they stay healthy. Cut so that the bud is facing outside of the bush and at a 45 degree angle that slopes inward so that you can keep promoting the outward growth.

· You should use bypass pruners that work like scissors and not the anvil types because the anvils crush the stems and make the roses more available to diseases.

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