Rose Gardening Made Easy

Considered by many to be the most beautiful and fragrant flower, the rose has been popular since before the Roman Empire, and rose breeders have worked for centuries to improve the flower production of the native rose. Since early in the 19th century, they have succeeded in doing that with the modern hybrid tea variety and its offshoots, but they have also turned rose gardening into a meticulous flower factory that requires lots of care to grow the flowers well year in and year out.

Planting Your Rose

With proper care, your hybrid tea roses and their floribunda and grandiflora descendents can flourish for many years. You will need to pamper them somewhat, however, starting with planting them in an accessible and sunny location. You will want to locate a plant that needs as much attention as a rose in a place that you can easily access to water, fertilize, prune and spray it.

When you plant them, be sure to dig the hole a few inches deeper and wider than the root-ball or roots, if the rose is a bare root variety, and mix the native soil with about an equal amount of peat moss to ensure the roots always have plenty of water available.

Pruning and General Cleanup

Begin your roses' blooming season by cutting them back in the early spring when danger of hard frosts is mostly gone. Remove any dead canes altogether, but also prune the live ones down to about 6 to 8 inches high, making a 45 degree cut with a sharp pair of pruners about 1/4 inch above the lowest-growing outward facing bud. This will ensure that the rose has healthy canes growing outward from the plant, enabling air to circulate among the leaves to dry them out when they get wet. Remove any dead leaves or other debris left after the winter at the base of the rose bush to prevent it from promoting fungal growth. Fertilize the plant and mulch the plant's base to prevent water from evaporating too quickly in hot weather.

Watering and Fertilizing

Continue fertilizing your rose about once a month until the end of summer, or until about two to three months before the first hard frost, to avoid promoting too much new growth that can be harmed by freezing temperatures. Refrain from pruning later than late summer for the same reason.

Use a good systemic rose fertilizer that will enable the rose to fight disease and pests as well has promoting growth and blooming. Deep water the rose with the equivalent of about 1 inch of rain once a week, if the rain does not do it for you. Spray the plant after every rainfall with a good rose spray that will prevent fungus from spreading onto the leaves and making them fall off. If you found a good sunny location for your rose, that will help keep the leaves dry as well.

If you perform these few simple tasks regularly, you should be able to enjoy your roses for years to come.

References

• Rose Gardening Guru.com: Rose Gardening Tips