Easy Steps to Growing Beautiful Roses

Growing hybrid tea, grandiflora, and floribunda roses can be easy. There are a few things that are pretty important to ensure your success.

This first thing is the soil. Roses grow best in good soil. Soil that has had organic matter, such as compost and soil pep (ground bark), added, works the best. In Pocatello, Idaho, our soils are very clay, with little room for air in the soil and when dry it is hard, making it hard for the roots to grow. The organic matter makes the soil looser, as well as more fertile. If your roses are already planted, you can improve the soil by applying 2-3" of compost or soil pep and gently working it into the soil, being careful not to disturb the roots. Also apply soil activator (humates) to the soil. This helps loosen the soil, making the fertilizers work better and it feeds the soil.

Roses need at least five hours of sun a day to grow, so choose a sunny location with good air circulation.

When planting, bury the graft 3 inches below the soil surface for added winter protection.

Roses like a good, deep soak to promote deep rooting and they will actually develop drought tolerance if established this way. Frequent light waterings promote shallow roots, which you do not want. If overhead watering, it is best to water in the morning, so the foliage will be dry by night. Using a soaker hose or drip irrigation to water, can be done any time of the day.

Roses are heavy feeders - it takes a lot of energy to produce all those large, magnificent blooms! I recommend using Ferti-lome Rose Food, containing systemic insecticide the first of every month, May through August. August 1st should be the last time you fertilize in a season. The plants need to begin to harden off for winter.

Insects that commonly attack roses are thrips, aphids, and spidermites. By using Ferti-lome Rose Food plus systemic insecticide you can prevent their damage. An occasional out break of aphids is easily controlled with Ferti-lome Triple Action in a handy ready to use bottle.

The three rose diseases are blackspot, powdery mildew, and rust, all of which are types of fungus. Blackspot occurs during humid or rainy weather or where watering (especially overhead) is excessive. Powdery mildew prefers warm days and cool nights, crowded plantings or damp, shady areas. Rust develops on moist foliage. Proper rose culture, including plenty of sun, sufficient air circulation, proper watering, and sanitation (disposing of old leaves and other debris), will minimize all three disease problems, but they may still occur. If detected early and treated with a fungicide (organic or chemical), none of these will spread out of control. You can easily grow roses and never have to treat them for any diseases with proper planting and care.

Most modern roses will bloom all summer if properly groomed. "Deadheading" refers to the process of removing old or spent flowers from the bush. Proper trimming ensures strong reblooming. By deadheading roses instead of allowing them to form seed hips, you're signaling the plant to produce more flowers. Rose leaves develop in sets of three, five, even seven or nine leaflets. Prune just above a set of five leaves for quickest reblooming.

Winter care should take place very late in the fall, after the ground becomes cold and may even start to freeze. You don't want to trap the warmth in the soil. Mound soil, compost, or leaves (from the trees, not from the roses), up to 15" to 17" high on the canes. This will keep the soil uniformly cold in the winter and keep the rose dormant.

Spring care begins in late spring. When the forsythias are in bloom, remove the mounded protection and prune the roses. Pruning encourages growth and by doing this too early in the spring will leave the new growth susceptible to a late frost.

This is a great time to plant roses. Check out the great selection of beautiful, healthy roses at Pinehurst.