Raising Roses Rebecca's Garden : Episode REB-655 -- More Projects »
Rose expert Norma Booty of Apple Valley, Minnesota, has been growing roses for years, and has established an exceptionally beautiful garden around her home. Here, she shares some of her insights and secrets to growing spectacular specimens. If you're just starting out with roses, try shrub roses first. They grow in a wide variety of soils, whereas other roses can be a bit more finicky about type of soil. Miniature roses are great for containers. You can put them on your deck, a patio or your front porch, and for someone with limited space, they can easily fit in the garden. Floribunda roses have large blossoms and compact size and or often less prone to disease. A hybrid tea is the type of rose that most people associate with the way a rose should look--long stems and high centers. Because of its sensitivity to disease, and moisture and soil conditions, the hybrid tea is probably the hardest to grow. As far as planting goes, your roses are going to appreciate six to eight hours of sunlight and a well-drained soil. Dig a hole about three times as wide as the container and twice as deep. Remove the roses from the container and look at the roots. If they're wound up, or root-bound, gently loosen the roots and place them in the hole. When you add fill soil around the base, it's important you amend your soil, use a combination of compost, cow manure and peat moss. Give roses about an inch of water a week. Don't water your roses from overhead unless you absolutely have to, and if you do, make sure you do it in the morning so the water evaporates. Otherwise, watering at the root base is really the best. Don't feed your roses right away. Give them time to get used to the new soil; they probably already have a time-release formula in them, so wait about a month. After that point, give them a fertilizer high in nitrogen. In the summer, when it's hot, apply mulch around the base of the plant to help keep weeds out, retain moisture and cool the soil. In summary, good sunlight, good drainage, the right amount of water in the morning and regular fertilizer are the keys to success when planting and caring for your roses. Powdery mildew, blackspot and rust are all forms of fungus, which can harm and even destroy your roses. Blackspot is probably the most recognizable rose disease. In time, blackspot on the leaves will cause the rose to completely defoliate if the fungus is not sprayed and removed. Rust is an orange discoloration on the underneath side of the leaf. Cool weather and nights with high moisture trigger the fungus, and it can kill a plant if allowed to continue. Luckily, there are a number of great fungicides on the market which can help you control and prevent fungus damage if conditions warrant.If you remember to select the right rose for your situation, plant properly, provide the best of care, and try to prevent fungus, your roses will thrive. You can't go wrong! | |
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