How to Care for Roses Outdoors

Make clean cuts when pruning roses.

Roses come in a broad range of blossoms, from a single rose with 11 petals to full roses with 41 or more. Some types include rose bushes in your flower beds or borders, climbing roses along fences or a trellis and ground-cover roses extending 8 feet. Knowing how to care for roses outdoors will continually provide you with attractive, productive flowers.

Things You'll Need

• Water
• Sprinkler hose with fine holes
• Rose fertilizer
• Pruning shears
• Sharp knife (optional)

Instructions

1. Water your outdoor roses only when the top 1 to 2 inches of soil get dry. Use a sprinkler hose containing several fine holes, not a garden hose, as the stream will be too strong. The water needs to penetrate deeply (at least a foot) into the soil without saturating the roots with standing water.

2. Keep your rose leaves from getting wet when you water to prevent spreading black spot disease. The black spot fungus infects wet rose leaves, causing scraggly looking, bare roses. Keep your rose foliage as dry as possible by watering in the morning or early afternoon only, giving the foliage time to dry by the evening.

3. Fertilize your roses after the first flush of blooms. Select from timed-release fertilizers, which last the longest, and granular and liquid fertilizers. If you have clay soil, you don't need to fertilize as often, as clay will retain nutrients from the fertilizer. If you have sandy soil, nutrients will leach out, requiring you to fertilize more often. Exactly how often to fertilize your roses depends on the product you choose and the manufacturer's instructions. Stop fertilizing six weeks before the first frost, recommends Sunset Book's "Roses."

4. Water the soil around your roses, then apply dry fertilizer 1 1/2 inches deep into the surface of the soil around the plants. If you water the soil after applying fertilizer, the dry fertilizer can burn the feeder roots. Apply liquid fertilizer to each rose bush by mixing the amount recommended by the manufacturer in a watering can and sprinkling onto each plant. Spray foliar fertilizer underneath the rose leaves in a spray bottle during days with temperatures under 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

5. Prune roses in the spring and lightly in the fall, using pruning shears or a sharp knife for clean cuts. Cut rose blooms for your home decor. If you have a new rose plant, wait until the fall of the first season before cutting any flowers. Cut just above a bud facing the outside of the plant. As you prune, try to shape your rose bushes. Remove all broken, dead or diseased wood.

Tips & Warnings

• Too much fertilizer on your rose plants can cause the leaves to turn brown, a condition known as fertilizer burn.

References

• "University of Missouri Extension"; Roses--Care After Planting; Christopher J. Starbuck
• "Roses: Placing Roses, Planting & Care, The Best Varieties"; Editors of Sunset Books; 2003
• "University of Illinois Extension"; Controlling Black Spot Disease of Roses; Sandra Mason; August 2000

Resources

• Planet Natural: Rose Fertilizer