Caring for Roses

Suppose you have taken great pains to ensure a perfect growing environment for your favorite roses, and they bloom aggressively with great beauty and wonderful aroma. Now what? Many people think that maintaining roses is a daunting task, but it is as difficult as you make it. If you think about it, a rose is simply a shrub with flowering blossoms. Roses are easy to care for, if you follow these general guidelines:

• Prune your roses in early spring. A good rule of thumb is to prune when the forsythia are in bloom. Cut about a quarter-inch above a bud, cutting down and away at an angle.
• Cut out all dead wood and damaged branches, then trim your bush to four healthy stems.
• Cut the entire bush to between 6 to 12 inches high, just above outward facing buds.
• During the growing season, fertilize your rose bushes regularly.
• Water your roses faithfully during the growing season. Rose require about 1 inch of rain each week.

In summer, roses require specific care guidelines in order to grow properly. Mulch to about 2 inches per bush for best results. When you much roses, they will require less watering and weeding. Make sure you deadhead your roses frequently. Deadheading means trimming the faded blooms from your bushes, to encourage new growth. Finally, summer growing means that your roses might be susceptible to diseases and pests, such as mildew and aphids. Treat your roses with insecticide spray if you have pests. The best treatment is one that you can apply directly to the roots, so that it will grow up the bush. Diseases like fungus can easily be treated with sulphur at the roots. You can prevent fungus by not over watering your roses.

Roses also require special care in the fall and winter. About a month before your first frost, stop fertilizing your plants. If you fertilize too far into autumn, roses will produce new growth that will simply freeze in winter. After the first hard freeze, protect your plants from winter. The amount of protection for your roses depends upon the zone in which you live. If you have hard, harsh, freezing winters, then you need to place wrap your bushes in burlap, place protective cones or buckets over them, and then mound dirt around the base. If you have cold winters, but not too much snow and ice, then you simply need to mound dirt at the base of each plant. If you live in a mild climate, with temperatures than fall only to just freezing or above, them mound a little dirt and compost at the base of your plants, then tie them around with rope.

Care for your roses in all seasons, and their return of beauty will be reward for your efforts.