How Do You Care For Roses?

[Jamie2337]

My husband picked up the most beautiful roses to plant. I don't know anything about rose care. Where do I plant them? What kind of sun and soil do they need?

Someone told me to take them out of the pots and soak the roots in a 5 gallon bucket of water for 2 days. I don't know about that!

Any help would be great!

[crzy4reefs]

hmmm i'll ask my mother inlaw she has tons of rose bushes. we get her a new rose bush every mothers day.

[Nina51]

i'm not a big fan of roses, i think they're too hard to care for. gary loves mini roses and he planted several in our flowerbed. when he was able, he was religious about caring for them. now that he can't, and i just don't have the time, they are beginning to look pretty sorry.

i did not want to be the one to suggest removing them so i just never mentioned it. not long ago, he was taking what he calls a "flower tour" and noticed how awful the roses looked. he told me i should just rip them out and plant something different. so i did. :D

[crzy4reefs]

lol nina.......

[Gary Majchrzak]

After that Bush thread in the lounge I gotta remember where we are! I'm not sure if I'd trust the advice of these loungers, Jamie. :D

I'm trying to find out how to take care of my new roses, too. I like 'em a lot- they're going to save me a lot of money the next time I send the wife some flowers!
Anyhoot, I've been feeding our new rose bush some "Miracle-Gro" that's made specifically made for roses (a pink powder) and the plant already looks much better. (This might be an ancedotal obseravtion- after all, the growing season has finally reached upstate New York.)
I've heard that crushed eggshells (spread around the base of the plant) can be beneficial for rose bushes, but it might be an old wives tale. Can anybody here corroborate? :D

[Nina51]

this is just a guess but i'd say the calcium/minerals in egg shells would be beneficial to just about any plant. my mother-in-law used to save egg shells from cooking. she kept them in a jug of water and after it sat for several days, she used the water for her plants. she had the most amazing african violets i had ever seen!

[Jeffrey Porter]

i wouldn't soak the roots for 2 days. if they wre bought as bare root roses, you could soak them overnight, but if they are growing in pots already you don't need to . i'm not sure what your soil is like, here it is either clay, sand or if your lucky a mixture in between. they like a rich but free draining soil with at least a half day of full sun. dig a hole larger than the rootball remove the rose from the pot and tease the roots apart a little bit so they stop growing in a circle. mix a bit of compost or well rotted manure with the soil and plant the rose. water it in well. they also like regular feeding. so apply a granular fertilizer (with micronutrients) arount the base and if you feel like it use a liquid fertilizer once a week. i live in a warmer climate so you will need to ask a local nursery or someone else in the forum about winter care. hope this helps.

[Sk8r]

I agree with Porter. They'll like an acid soil better than an alkaline one. Do not plant near concrete. The alkalinity is not good for it. Dig an adequate hole, spread the roots a bit if you can, ease it in; it will like pecan hulls, any sort of soil-loosener that will rot acidically. Most of a rose's vital water-food roots spread out in a ring about as large as its branches, and are very close to the surface. This area needs to be kept weed-free and uncompacted and can be mulched with bark or even cottonseed hull. Water should not stand about them, but the soil should be moist often. In the worst soils, a soil acidifying mulch is good.

A rose is a graft on a briar rose stem, and if there starts to be any growth below the 'knot', break that off.

Prune roses after each bloom. Your clip-point should be the first five-leafed twig, or wherever you can preserve a good shape for the branch. Do not let them follow their own inclination.

Plant them where you have access to all sides of the rose, if you can at all manage it.

Get Miracle Grow rose food, the sort you can water-on, and ignore the amount instructions: mix til bright pink, and let it have it once a week from a watering can or hose-mixer.

After its last seasonal bloom, or when the weather turns wintry, clip it down to about knee high, and bury it deep in mulch that will stay put. In some very bitter climates, people actually bury the whole bush in a mound of mulch and dirt and dig it out again in the spring, protecting the graft/join.

HTH. [used to have a huge rose garden in alkaline and hot Oklahoma, where Christmas roses are not unheard of.]

[tcb7019]

Like mentioned, save your egg shells and bury them in the soil. The calcium is good for them. Also, after you make your coffee, save the coffee grinds and work them in the soil as well. Your roses will love you. In addition, miracle grow is also a very good idea.

Tom

[beaniebeagle]

care/pruning also really depends on what type of rose it is (alba, centifolia, tea, hybrid tea etc

mostly sun to full sun is the norm. some of the older type roses (alba) tolerate more shade

a lot of rose growers use some manure to enrich the soil...the crap stinks too much for me. roses are usually are heavy feeders, i am kinda inconsistant with that. rose fertilizers will have directions on them, just dont get fooled with the overpriced fertilizers, if you look at the numbers, a lot are about the same

www.gardenweb.com is a forum that has a good section dedicated to roses

i personally wouldnt use anything that would attract any animals to dig into the roots (ie egg shells)

[reefcrazy00246]

Some pretty good info. already. A few other things I will mention is that banana peels are also a very good natural fertilizer for them. Also I have the best luck with full sun. If mine are in any shade at all they will get black-spot...a fairly common disease(?) in them. Some easy prevention tips for this is to try to water in the morning and/or do not get the leaves wet. I say water in the morning because if you do get the leaves wet, they will have plenty of time to dry. Black spot reproduces in water and will struggle if the leaves stay dry.

Keep them 'clean'...remove any yellow or dead leaves around them and like mentioned already cut the old flowers off as soon as they die/fade, this will promote the plant to start working on a new bud.

What kind of rose is this?? We could probably give some more details if we knew what kind of roses you have. Pictures are always good too! :D

BTW...do not soak them in water for two days!!!

[Sk8r]

Also sulfur, if you get yellow leaves with black spots. Epidemic in Oklahoma rose culture. We just put it on as a matter of course.

[Jeffrey Porter]

also when you prune back a stem, cut just above an outward facing node to prevent the rose growing back into itself.