Think Rose Bush Care Is Tough? You May Be In For A Pleasant Surprise!
FREE! Get your Rose Care Basics Mini-Course Today! Limited Time Only, Please.Roses are known and appreciated across the world for their beautiful blooms and sweet fragrances. Their history dates back for thousands of years. Although there are many different varieties of roses, rose bushes are probably the most common. Rose bush care is easy when you follow a few simple rules. You don’t need to be a master gardener to get started and be successful with growing roses.
There are hundreds of varieties of rose bushes, with a rose to suit almost every situation. Roses for cutting, roses for climbing, roses to look nice in your yard as a hedge, even miniature roses.
Give Your Special Rose Bushes The Care They Need To Thrive!
So much planning and thought goes into selecting the right rose bush for your garden, that it’s natural to want to take a bit of extra effort to make sure your roses thrive once they’re planted.
Rose bush care is fairly easy when you understand what roses need.
- Roses like to be planted in sunny spots. They need at least six hours of unfiltered, direct sunlight a day. Even those rose bushes that are said to do very well in the shade still need about four to six hours of direct sunlight a day.
- Roses also need good soil to grow in. You can always improve the soil in your garden with a little bit of compost. Top-dress/mulch your plants with compost if they’re already established. You can also use a chemical or organic slow-release rose bush fertilizer and get great results that way.
Eliminate Common Pests On Rose Bushes
Like any other plant, roses are prone to certain bugs and diseases. You will sometimes have to deal with a pest problem but proper management of your rose garden and keeping your roses healthy and your garden clean can help ward off many of these problems before they get too well-established.
Rose bushes are prone to infestation from:
Rose midge larva, rose cane borer, thrips, Japanese beetles, stem girders, aphids, rose slugs, mites, caterpillars, scale insects, and rose chafers.
The good news is, you probably won’t be unlucky enough to get all of these bugs at once. Some of them are regional and seem to be particularly prevalent in just certain parts of the country. If you notice bugs on your plant, you can ID them yourself using an illustrated guide from the library, or take them to a cooperative extension office of the US Department of Agriculture and ask for help. Many of these offices have outreach programs (like the Master Gardeners – who are volunteers) to help you for free you’re your gardening concerns.
Once you see bugs on your plant, you’ll have to decide how bad the problem is and whether you want to try to address it with an organic or chemical solution.
If there are just a few bugs, it’s easy enough (and recommended) to crush the bugs, webs, and egg sacs that you observe when you’re out in your garden. If you wear gloves, it’s not that gross. Be sure to check under the bottom of the leaves to find places the bugs may be hiding. You may want to remove the entire leaf if you see something boring into the leaf or suspect their may be eggs laid in the leaf itself. Do not dispose of these leaves around the base of your plants, or in a cold compost pile that will be later used to mulch your roses. This can lead to the spread/propagation of disease and/or insect lifecycles. Instead, dispose of the leaves in your clean green garbage can, by burning, or composting in a different area.
If you choose to pick up some chemical pesticides, be sure to use them carefully and according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Even “organic” pesticides can be made of potent formulations that you wouldn’t want to mix with your pets, children, or grandchildren. Be careful, wear gloves reserved for this purpose, and possibly a mask, then wash your hands when you are done.
Personally, I prefer to go the organic approach whenever possible because it’s easier, cheaper, and potentially safer. One organic approach is to try to encourage the development of “beneficial insects” in your garden to combat the “bad bugs.” For example, lady bugs eat aphids. You can release live lady bugs onto your rose bushes to help them get established, or create natural space in your yard that will encourage bugs, birds and other natural predators.
Finally, remember that weak plants are more susceptible to bugs and disease. Keep your plants healthy by providing optimum sun and soil conditions, weeding your rose beds, pruning diligently and selecting varieties that will thrive in your climate.
How To Ensure A Stellar Bloom Season
One of the best ways to help your roses produce a striking show year after year and all summer long is be removing spent blossoms (referred to as “deadheading”) before flowers go to seed (or roses form hips). This will help your plants redirect their energy into producing blossoms and not into producing seeds. When seed heads are formed, the flower thinks it is “done” with its reproductive cycle and can rest. We don’t want it to rest, we want it to produce more blooms.
The only exception may be that if your plant looks tired out, or is struggling with pets and disease, you may want to prune off live blossoms before they flower so that the plant can redirect its energy into stem/root health and not into producing wonderful rose blossoms until it is recovered.
While you’re out there cutting live stems and deadheading, use your pruning shears judiciously to prune your roses, too. If you notice any weak or broken stems or see new growth headed in an unwanted direction, don’t be afraid to clip-clip-clip, even during the growing season.
Simple Rose Care Throughout The Year Is Easy An Automatic
If you’re as big a rose enthusiast as I am, you may find that you’re looking for more and more places to grow roses throughout your yard. There are many gardeners who think that no garden is complete without one or several rose bushes. A properly cared for rose bush can produce blooms from the month of June until it begins to frost.
Keep an eye on your roses health as you pick, deadhead and water them and you’ll find that few problems develop and progress so quickly that you can’t resolve them with a little proactive care on the front end of the problem.
Related posts:
- Organic Rose Gardening – Greening Your Garden And Our World
- Rose Planting Strategies For Healthy Long-Lived Plants
- An Experienced Gardener’s Secrets For Caring For Roses
- Growing Climbing Roses: Invite The Charm And Romance Of Climbing Roses Into Your Garden
