How to grow great roses?

Question

OK. I have some rose bushes out front at my new house. I have a black thumb, and I know NOTHING about gardening or yard care. Shoot, I have never even mowed a lawn. So I think I hear you are to cut the roses at a certain point? What about watering them? How much/often? I could easily get online and "GOOGLE" this, but I want personal tips and advice. What works for you?

Answer 1

OK – I am going to try and explain this as simply as I can but maybe backwards or not in any order but I think I will cover all the bases.

The roses are already planted and established, no? And I am going to make a few assumptions. I will assume they are repeat blooming, Hybrid Shrub Roses with an upright growth pattern.  

OK, whenever a flower has faded (or a group of flowers) - follow the stem down until you get to a leaf that is made up of 5 leaves (roses have compound leaves – more than one leaf makes up one leaf) and is facing to the outside (not facing towards the center of the bush) of the rose bush and cut the faded flower off at about one quarter to one half inch above that leaf. A new stem will develop facing outward with new flower buds. And each time the flowers fade – follow the same procedure and continue until your rose is no longer producing flowers.

Roses are heavy feeders and love rich soil, so be generous by adding organic matter to the soil such as compost, peat moss and/or well rotted manure – which can be purchased at the garden center. Roses LOVE alfalfa added to the soil (to keep it simple, alfalfa has a hormone roses respond to gloriously). You can buy alfalfa pellets at a feed store or at a pet shop and add about a cup or two per shrub - directly to the soil around each shrub and mix it in or you can make alfalfa tea by adding about ten cups of the alfalfa pellets to a five gallon bucket full of water for a few days – mix it up and water the roses with it. They will love you back with rich green leaves, lots of side branches and of course, flowers.

They should not be planted too close together – they need good air circulation – and can be dug up in the spring and spaced out a bit, IF NEEDED.

In the spring, cut back any dead branches to ground level and thin out what is left to about five stems. Remove two/thirds of the tops of the branches you are keeping (example: if the stems are 36 inches from the ground up - cut them back to 12 inches). Try to cut the branches right above a bud that is facing AWAY from the center of the shrub.

They should be watered well and deeply. Although you have enriched the soil with tons of organic matter {;-) – you can also use water soluble fertilizer according to directions.

Follow these simple? steps and you will be the envy of your neighbors.

Now that you know a few of the basics that will get you started and keep your roses alive and blooming, go out and buy a book (or go to the library) on rose gardening or rose culture or use the Internet. You will learn even more helpful tips and insider secrets to wonderful roses.

I hope this wasn't too confusing.

Answer 2

What kind of roses are they?

Some of the new shrub roses, like 'Knockout', need almost no care other than watering.  If they are the kind that grow long stems and make big flowers for cutting, they are most likely Hybrid Tea roses.

Full sun; generous watering; fertile, well-drained soil that does not stay waterlogged.  Control pests when they appear.   Winter protection in cold areas. You will have to read up on those.  Roses like it hot and sunny with quite a bit of watering.  You want to soak them when you water.  You can let them dry out between waterings, but the idea is not to skimp on the amount, and also not to drown them by watering too frequently.  It depends on your soil and the weather how often is right.  If in doubt, scratch up a little soil and feel if it is dry or wet below the surface.

As far as the pruning, two things.  First, throughout the blooming season, you can remove spent flowers before they make rose hips (seeds) and plants will continue blooming.  Cut the stem back to at least the second group of five leaves.  Most roses will have several blooms per stem, so you can just snip off the first ones short and when the last bud on the stem is done, then cut the stem back.

Secondly - roses (in Michigan at least) always to seem to die back some in the winter  from wherever they were last pruned.  So best to prune lightly if at all in the fall.  Save your main pruning for Spring.  As plants begin to break dormancy, it is fairly obvious which canes are alive.  Remove all but 3-5 canes on an average size plant, or you can leave a few more on a bigger, well-established landscape sized plant.  Pick canes to keep that are sturdy, a healthy green color, and look like they are ready to grow.  Get rid of crossing or weak twiggy stuff.  You can cut them pretty severely - leave anywhere from 6" on that average size plant to 12" or more on that big plant.  You will see leaf buds break all up and down the canes you leave.  

they can be a bit of work - but so worth it.  Good luck!

Answer 3

well the good thing is that they are already started. Do you drink coffee? if so take the used coffee grounds out about once a week and just sprinkle them around the bush. They love the coffee. I don't know why but i am sure you can find out somewhere on the web. Roses are not as difficult to grow as many people think, they just have a lot of pests.  

But to keep a plant healthy just water when you have a dry spell. I usually wait 3 full days before i water, if there is no, or very little rain. Some people will say more, some less.  After a bloom has died off you can cut the stem down to the first node. There will be 5 leaves in the area and you will see a swollen spot (the node)  on the branch, cut right above the node. This will give you more blooms:)

You also cut the entire plant back in the fall. It depends on your area as to the date. you will want to wait for at least 2 frosts.  A good rule of thumb is to cut down it to your knees. This will ensure a healthy bush the next year. It will also come back bushier.

Answer 4

Well, this is by far not a 'best answer', I'm sorta in the same boat as you up until this year, I am renting a home with roses around it in some places.  I had to go get a spray that kills not only fungus (like powdery mildew) but kills bugs too.  I also got a small box of miricle grow rose food, I put a scoop of it into a gallon of water (an old gallon jug from store bought water) and once every 2 weeks pour it around the base of the roses.  Around October a lot of people around here will cut the roses back, like all the way back, so only like a foot or less is left of the stem.  But then again there are some empty homes in the area that has roses that are super neglected and they do fine.  So just check your roses (are the leaves healthy, do they have holes on them, mildew, are there aphids, etc) that way you will know what to get for the plants.  Also I was told after the roses are near done with their bloom, cut the flowers off to encourage more to grow. Good luck!

Answer 5

P.Roses need systemic fertilizer (goes in thru the roots) or they will get all kinds of stuff wrong with them.  They also need to have the bulb part (hip) removed after the roses are spent.  Save these rose hips and make tea out of them.  They are very high in Vitamin C.  Keep them trimmed and feed them as often as the box of fertilizer says.  I also save all meat blood from cooking and dilute it and give them that.  When I was growing up in a little town in S.D. the funeral home had the most beautiful roses you have ever seen and someone said they used blood on them......don't even ask! ha  Anyway, depending upon where you live, you need to put them to bed for the winter by cutting them way back to like six inches and cover them with mulch.  Good luck !!  p.s.  I do the banana peel thing too.

Answer 6

All you need to do is make sure you water them fairly often. When you dig the hole, use some good potting soil & mix 50/50 with natural soil around the plant. I use the kind with fertilizer. I also plant a banana peel a couple inches below the surface to give the rose natural potassium. It grows better and has more blooms.