After seeing the enticing roses pictured on the cover and the pages of our Home Garden Guide to Roses, have you decided to grow at least a few rose bushes in your garden this year?
Or have you always admired roses but refrained from growing them because you thought it was difficult?
Roses are not hard to grow; there is nothing complicated about it. So why not join the thousands of gardeners already enjoying growing roses?
Types Of Roses
There are several types of roses that you can choose for your garden:
- The low, spreading floribundas which overdo themselves in blooming steadily from late spring until frost
- The taller, more formal hybrid teas produce elegantly well-formed blooms that are tops for cutting.
- The vigorous climbers that, when in bloom, are clouds of crimson, pink, white, or yellow or
- the unpretentious old-fashioned roses such as the damask, the musk, and the moss
Mail-order firms, garden centers, nurseries, department stores, and even a variety of stores sell rose bushes.
Some are wrapped in moss and packaged in plastic or waterproof paper, some are not wrapped, and some are already growing in a container.
But regardless of how it is packed and where it is bought, if the rose is healthy and top grade and cared for according to the directions below, it will thrive and, by late spring, bloom.
Incidentally, reputable nurseries and mail-order firms guarantee roses bloom the first year.
Planting Of Roses
Very early spring, when forsythia is golden with bloom, the soil has thawed, and the air is still cool, is the time to put in your roses. And the earlier this is done, the better.
(However, if you buy rose bushes growing in containers, you can safely plant them much later or at any time the soil can be worked.)
Roses, which are not as demanding as many plants, will grow in any soil that has shown itself good enough for raising flowers or vegetables and is not crowded with roots from nearby trees.
And 6 hours of sunlight is all they need. Finally, the bushes should be spaced a foot and a half apart. With these points in mind, you can select the best spot in your garden for roses.
Planting them is not hard, but if possible, to simplify the job, have someone help you by holding the bush while you fill in the soil around it.
First, dig a hole large enough to give the roots plenty of room, probably about 15” inches across and 12” inches deep.
Now inspect the rose bush; if any roots are broken, cut them off just above the injured portion. At the base of the canes, look for a knobby swelling.
The bud union is where the two individual rose plants making up your rose are joined: a wild rose used for its vigorous root system topped by the particular variety you desire.
The rose bush should be planted so that this bud union is at, or barely below, the soil level around it.
The easy way to find the right planting depth is to line up the bud union with a tool handle laid over the hole, as in step 1 below.
Now, in the bottom of the hole, build up a cone of soil that will raise the rose bush to the correct height, and on it, place the rose.
Spread the roots down the sides of the cone and fill the hole about three-quarters with soil while holding the bush straight.
Carefully tramp down the soil around the bush and then thoroughly soak the area with a few bucketfuls of water.
When the water has completely drained away, fill the hole, keeping the soil loose.
To keep the bush from drying out while it is establishing itself, bank up the soil around it. Then, in a few weeks, this can be removed.
Since the nurseryman pruned the bushes before you bought them, it is not necessary to prune them now except to remove dead or broken canes.
(You will find these steps in planting illustrated at the bottom of the page.)
Soon, when the weather warms and the bush has taken hold, its buds will swell and burst forth with new foliage, and by late spring, your rose will be blooming.
Caring For Your Roses
Naturally, these newly-planted roses will need to be watered frequently until they develop good roots, but after this time, they need to be watered only during dry spells.
If water is a short item in your area, you might follow the practice of the rose experts who cover their rose beds with a light layer of buckwheat hulls, peat, or ground corn cobs.
This mulch conserves the water in the soil, keeps the soil cooler, and discourages the growth of weeds.
After the plants have become established, scratch in a handful of plant food around each bush and then soak the soil thoroughly. Remember that too little fertilizer is better than too much.
Spraying and Dusting
When you cut some blossoms for the house, you may discover a powdery white substance on the leaves or some aphids on the young buds.
This is nothing to be alarmed about, for sprays and dust are available, which, if used on your roses once a week, will eliminate all pests.
Though the experts sometimes use a different material to control each pest and disease, there are combination materials that will control both insects and diseases, thus making using a different material for each pest unnecessary.
The expert rose growers, wanting to give their roses the best protection, begin their weekly spraying and dusting when foliage appears.
Protection for Winter
Your roses will need protection for the winter. The easiest method is to mound up the soil around each bush to a height of 8” inches.
If any canes are extra long and liable to whip around in the wind, cut them back slightly.
The following spring, when there’s no longer a chance of frost, remove the hill of soil around each rose and give each bush a handful of plant food, scratching it into the soil.
Before the weather grows warm and the bushes put out new growth, prune the bushes lightly. This is not a complicated procedure at all.
Annual Spring Pruning
The annual spring pruning of roses includes removing tips of canes that were winter-killed and canes that are diseased or that crisscross each other and grow toward the center of the plant.
To encourage growth away from the center, make cuts just above a bud facing away from the bush’s center.
The cane will then stop growing where it was cut and divert its energies to the topmost bud remaining on the cane.
If the bud faces outward, the cane’s new growth will be in that direction. The experts call this technique “cutting to an outside bud.”
Start With These Varieties
When you give your roses their annual spring pruning, never whack them down to the near-ground level.
This will only sap their strength and delay bloom. Healthy young canes needn’t be cut shorter than 2’ feet.
Hybrid teas
- Peace (yellow edged with pink)
- Christopher Stone (crimson)
- Dainty Bess (rose-pink)
- Pedralbes (white)
- Helen Traubel (pink)
Floribundas
- Frensham (deep crimson)
- Betty Prior (carmine to shell pink)
- Fashion (coral pink)
- Red Pinocchio
- Summer Snow (white)
- Vogue (cherry coral)
- Goldilocks (yellow)
- Irene of Denmark (white)
- Floradora (scarlet orange)
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