Roses are an all-season crop – the most continuous one in the flower dome. Perhaps for this reason, many gardeners assume that roses can wait if other jobs are pressing when it comes to early spring chores.
Consequently, the early attention roses should receive often gets put off from weekend to weekend.
If you want to grow excellent roses, they must have a first call in getting such care as they require.
The gardener, who assumes that the queen of flowers will be content to sit around on the sidelines waiting until it is convenient for him to minister to her needs, will find her a discontented and sulky mistress.
So let’s face it, if we want first-quality rose blooms in abundance and throughout the season—make roses the number one task.
The Established Rose Garden
With the melting of winter snow and gradually rising temperatures, the rose lover’s first concern is to look over his plants and estimate the amount of winter injury there has been.
Some of it, he can tell at a glance:
- Branches were broken by snow and ice
- Tips of canes brown
- Brittle from excessive freezing
There may be, too, a hidden injury that will not show up until later.
However, the first order of the day is to get the bushes to hack into condition for every break, bruise, or cane which is dying back, which means potential future trouble.
Pruning
Pruning, then, is the first step. In the rose literature of former days, this was treated as a sacred rite, to be performed only by a European-trained gardener, with imported “secateurs.” (I can still see a picture of him, complete with a gardener’s apron and howler hat.)
Rose pruning is not too complicated and can be successfully done by the beginner. His work will be simplified if he learns at the outset that there are two distinct kinds of pruning to be done. The first is pruning which must be done for the plant’s health.
The second is pruning which can be done to control growth and the number, size, and time of blooms. This type of pruning is of particular concern to the grower who wants the largest and most perfect flowers he can get, especially if he intends to exhibit.
In our garden, we find it advisable to make the first pruning just as soon as the leaf buds begin to swell, paying no attention to the second type of pruning until we go over the beds a second time, two to four weeks later.
First Pruning
In the first pruning, all broken and winter-injured wood is removed, and also surplus old canes from bushes that tend to be overcrowded and spreading branches that show an inclination to get tangled up with their neighbors.
Second Pruning
In the second pruning, made after foliage growth has started sufficiently to indicate vigorous live wood, we remove any winter-injured shoots formerly overlooked and cut hack healthy live wood by the type of plant we wish to develop in each case.
Principle Guide in Pruning
The principle guiding such pruning is this: In general, the more severe the pruning, the larger and more perfect the blooms will be, but the number of blooms will be fewer.
This applies particularly to teas, hybrid teas, and larger flowered floribundas, recently reclassified as Grandifloras.
Moderate Pruning
Pruning is designated as light, moderate, and heavy. In light (or high) pruning, the canes are merely trimmed to hack about one-third and weak, twiggy side growths removed. (In northern sections, old man winter is likely to do most of this job for you, leaving the dead wood to be removed in the early spring pruning.)
In moderate pruning, canes are cut back to four to eight buds on each main stem, and in hard pruning, to half that number.
The amount of pruning for each plant will depend upon general climatic conditions, the vigor of growth, and the variety, so making hard and fast rules is impossible.
Pruning Cuts
Pruning cuts, especially in hard pruning, are best made above a bud pointing out, so the new branches will tend to make a spreading, open plant: but this cannot always be done.
What is of great importance is that each cut is made just above the bud (14” inches or less) and with a sharp knife or shears that will leave a clean, smooth surface that will callus quickly.
Removing Oldest Canes
Floribundas require little pruning except to remove the oldest canes and maintain fairly open plants. Shrubs and most old-fashioned roses need even less.
Climbing roses, except for the rambler type, which should be pruned after flowering, need little pruning except to remove some of the oldest canes back to or near the base to prevent overcrowding.
It is important with many, however, to train strong new canes at an angle or horizontally, to get a profusion of flowering side shoots instead of just a few at the top.
Spring Clean-up
Between the early spring pruning and the second one, rake over the beds to remove all debris of trimmings, fallen leaves, and other litter. This is piled up and burned.
If soil or compost has been billed up around the plants, as it should be in the north, this is then carefully removed so as not to injure the stems, and the tilling is material worked into the soil of the beds. We then give the first spring spraying.
First Spray
This first spray should cover not only the plants but the surface of the soil as well. If leaf growth has not started, one of the dormant nil sprays or liquid lime-sulfur may be used; otherwise, the all-purpose rose spray.
The objective is to have plants and soil surface (where numerous pests, especially black spot spores, winter over) as clean as possible.
Spring Feeding
A few days after this spraying, we give the roses spring feeding—the heaviest of the year. Roses are hungry plants, and to produce their best must be kept supplied with food.
Our spring application consists of a general-purpose fertilizer (5-10.5) plus two to three pounds of superphosphate per hundred square feet (or about 1 pound to five or six plants).
Do not put fertilizer in a ring around the plants. Instead, spread it evenly over the entire surface and then work lightly with a small-bladed hoe. If any fertilizer has adhered to the leaves, remove it with a spray from the hose.
Mulching
We used to delay applying mulch until late spring or early summer. Now we put it on immediately after the first feeding. We have tried many mulches but find buckwheat hulls the most satisfactory.
Pine needles, ground corn cobs, sawdust, and other materials serve well. Peat moss tends to dry out and become impenetrable by ordinary rains. A good mulch cuts down the problem of weeding by 75% to 90% percent.
It conserves moisture, keeps the soil cooler in hot weather, and prevents hard packing of the soil surface – a very important point in clay soils. By all means, mulch your roses, and do it early.
With us, the second pruning follows the feeding and mulching. Clippings are gathered and burned.
Spraying or dusting is repeated at intervals of a week to ten days, regardless of whether any insects or diseases appear. This is imperative if you want to be sure of good blooms.
Starting With Roses
If this is your first year with roses, or if you are adding new plants to your garden, start early. Every week’s delay after the soil can be dug increases your chances of success.
If planting must be delayed until late April or May, buy growing plants in pots instead of dormant ones. These may be transplanted even when in bloom.
To grow teas, hybrid teas, and floribundas successfully, you must have a location with good drainage, plenty of sunshine, and free air circulation. The soil is of minor importance because almost any soil can be built into good rose soil.
Preparing The Soil
In preparing the soil, dig deep – a minimum of 18″ inches and preferably 24″ inches.
If the soil is very poor, excavate the bed and fill it into at least half its depth or even two-thirds, with good topsoil mixed with one-third, by bulk, of compost, rotted manure, or peat moss.
Work bone meal into this (4 to 5 pounds per 100 square feet) or superphosphate at the same rate.
If dormant plants are used, prune back the tops (if not already done by the nursery) to 10” or 15” inches.
Cut broken or injured roots back to firm wood and trim back over-long roots. While planting, keep roots plunged in water or covered with wet peat moss.
Place enough soil in each planting hole (which should be large enough to take roots without crowding) so that the “knuckle” or swelling at the base of the stem will be just at or slightly below the surface after the soil is filled in.
Spread roots out in a natural position, pack soil around them, and then fill the hole with water and let this soak away before filling in the rest of the soil. Hill up soil around canes and leave it until growth starts, then level it down.
44659 by F. F. Rockwell