How to care for roses – tips for beginners and lovers

The beauty and variety of varieties of garden roses makes this plant desirable. Not the last role in the growing popularity of many varieties is played by the relatively simple care for them and their ability, for almost the entire season, to delight with their continuous flowering. How to care for roses throughout the season, we will tell in our article.

Often, gardeners perform only two mandatory actions – loosening and top dressing. Operations such as mulching the soil or forming a bush are not recognized by all rose lovers, as a result of which the bushes do not develop to their full potential. Rose pruning also causes a lot of controversy. Caring for roses consists of several stages and they must be followed.

Additional fertilizing

Since roses are very demanding on the composition of the soil, top dressing is one of the most important activities in caring for them. The lack of one or more elements in the soil negatively affects the growth and decorativeness of the bush.

During the year, several top dressings are carried out. Fertilizers in the form of powder or granules are scattered on the surface of the soil around the rose bush and lightly buried in the ground. It is also convenient to use liquid fertilizers that can be applied throughout the season. The complex will be complemented by foliar feeding, which has some advantages: after being applied to the leaves, they enter the cell sap within several hours and help to increase the size of the flower and improve the general condition of the plants, which is especially important for exhibition specimens of roses.

When and what to feed

At different times of the year, rose bushes need different types of dressings containing certain elements:

All top dressings are carried out in the morning or in the evening on a cloudy day to avoid plant burns. Nitrogen top dressing is not carried out after July, otherwise shoots will grow that will not have time to mature before winter and will negatively affect the frost resistance of the bush.

Trimming

Each shoot of a rose actively grows and blooms for several years, without increasing its thickness. Then its tip begins to die off, and a new shoot begins to grow from a kidney located just below. If pruning is not done in a timely manner, the rose will turn into thickets of living and dead shoots, which will negatively affect the decorativeness of the bush and the abundance of its flowering.

Tools

For high-quality pruning of roses, tools will be required. It is important that they are clean and that the secateurs are well sharpened. Before trimming, you need to treat the tool with a solution of potassium permanganate, and if they are made of stainless steel, then with a solution of copper sulfate.

You will need:

• Secateurs with two cutting edges. It is necessary to ensure that the stem falls in the middle of the cutting edge.
• Secateurs with one cutting edge. It is easier to use, although it is less durable than a tool with two cutting edges.
• Gloves. To protect the hands from spikes, they must be made of a thick and elastic material.
• Garden scissors with long handles. This tool is indispensable for pruning high climbing and shrub roses. They are very handy for cutting thick stems.
• Garden saw. It is necessary for cutting stems whose thickness is more than 2 cm.
• Carpet for knees. It will help you get closer to the bush and keep your joints healthy.

slices

There is a general rule for slicing. The cut should be oblique and located 0,5–1 cm above the kidney. If you need to get a sprawling bush, the cut is made above the kidney, located on the outside of the shoot. The cut surface must be smooth, for this you need to use only a sharp pruner. As a result of improper pruning, knots may form over some shoots, which must be removed as they appear.

When to cut

The timing of pruning depends on the group to which the rose belongs, and are carried out throughout the season.

In the spring, pruning is carried out for bushes planted in autumn and long-rooted specimens. The best time for spring pruning is after removing the shelter and the onset of heat, when the buds begin to swell, but the shoots have not yet started to grow. Here you need to find a middle ground, because with too early pruning, buds that burst prematurely can damage return frosts, and pruning too late, when sap flow has already begun, weakens the bush, which loses nutrients.

In summer, sanitary and formative pruning is carried out, wild growth is removed, preventing the bush from thickening, after flowering, wilted inflorescences are cut off.

In autumn, all unripened shoots are removed and the stems are shortened to the height of the shelter.

Trimming types

There are several types of pruning, they depend on the season, the type of bush and its height. Distinguish between strong, moderate and weak pruning.

With heavy pruning, the stems are shortened by about 2/3 of the height, and the cut is made at a height of 3–4 buds from the base of the bush, leaving a shoot about 15 cm long. Newly planted bushes and adult bushes of hybrid tea roses, grown to participate in exhibitions. Also, this type of pruning is used to rejuvenate the bush. Do not use heavy pruning for floribunda roses.

Moderate pruning is carried out at the level of 5-7 buds from the base, leaving about half of the shoot. Almost all hybrid tea and floribunda varieties need this type of pruning.

With weak pruning, 8-15 buds are left from the base of the bush, which allows you to give the plant an elegant shape. It is not recommended to use such pruning for several years in a row, as this helps to stretch the bush and reduce flowering. This type of pruning is necessary for vigorous varieties of hybrid tea roses and all bushes growing on sandy soils or in areas with highly polluted air.

There is also a sanitary pruning, in which all diseased, frozen and weak shoots are removed, while the stems are shortened to healthy tissue.

Ways of trimming

For a long time, rose growers used the traditional pruning method, which took into account many factors: the type of roses, the time of planting and rooting, wishes for the type of bush. But in the 90s of the last century, the effectiveness of a simplified pruning method was proven, which many rose lovers began to use with pleasure and get no less beautiful and healthy specimens.

Traditional pruning method

Simplified way

Tests conducted by the Royal National Society have shown that with this method of pruning, the bushes are as healthy as with the traditional method, and in some cases received even larger flowers. However, the method is much simpler. The bush must be cut with a sharp pruner to half its height. You can also use shears to cut plants. There is no need to cut out weak and thin shoots, only dead branches need to be cut to the base. The terms of such pruning coincide with the terms of pruning in the traditional way.

Watering

Thanks to their deep root system, well-established rose bushes don’t always need to be watered. They are able to stay fresh and feel good even in the summer drought, when other plants begin to wither. However, if roses are not watered for several dry periods, their growth slows down, the flowers become smaller and fade faster, while the foliage remains fresh and green.

It is necessary to pay attention to the place of planting roses. So, specimens planted on sandy soil or along the wall of the house need regular watering. Abundant watering is necessary for all roses if the drought occurs in late spring.

Roses are watered most often from a watering can. Water consumption – 5 liters for each bush. Climbing roses require about 15 liters for each copy. You should not water roses often, and when watering, you do not need to put a sprinkler on the spout of the watering can.

Another method of watering is that a roller is made of earth around the bush and the space around the bush is filled with water from a hose.

The most convenient method of watering is drip. A hose is laid between the bushes, through the holes in which water enters.

Loosening the soil

Loosening the soil around the bush should be regular, it will provide oxygen to the roots – this is the only way to get rid of many weeds that harm the growth of the plant. For example, wheatgrass cannot be destroyed by mulching. Only loosening will help. Also, loosening the soil will prevent the appearance of pests. No need to loosen deeper than 2-3 cm, otherwise there is a risk of damaging the root system of the rose. Since deep digging should be avoided, forks should not be used for loosening. It is better to use a hoe or weeder.

Mulching

Covering the soil around the plant with a layer of organic material has several benefits:

• Retains moisture.
• Reduces weeds.
• Improves soil quality.
• Provides additional nutrition to plants.
• Reduces the risk of black spot.

For mulching, peat, larch or pine bark, rotted manure or leaf humus are used. Mowed grass can also be used, but this must be done with care. If the grass is mown from a weedy area that has been treated with pesticides, you should not immediately fill up a thick layer of such mulch, in addition, the grass should be ted from time to time.

Before mulching, it is necessary to remove debris, weed, water and fertilize. Mulching is usually done in the spring. In autumn, the mulch is lightly buried in the soil. Sometimes you can mulch in the fall, before the soil has cooled.

IMPORTANT: mulching will not replace the full feeding of roses, since in addition to organic fertilizers, plants also need other elements that contain complex fertilizers.

Direction of growth and tying

Most spray varieties of roses do not require tying and support. The only exceptions are some types of shrub roses with weak stems. Around them you need to install a few inconspicuous pegs and connect their tops with planks.

Climbing roses are best formed from the very beginning. The main shoots are directed horizontally, side shoots growing upwards will begin to form on them, which will bloom profusely. If the bush is located near a wall or fence, you can form it in this way. If a pillar or tripod serves as a support, the stems simply wrap around this support. When tying the stems, you need to leave enough space so that when the shoots thicken, the wire does not interfere with their growth.

Plucking buds

This procedure is relevant for hybrid tea roses. Sometimes several buds are formed at the ends of the shoots. You need to leave only one to get a large flower. All other buds are plucked as they appear.

cut

In your desire to have a beautiful bouquet in the house, the main thing is not to overdo it and not weaken the bush by constant cutting. Do not cut more than 1/3 of the length of the shoot. The cut should always be located above the kidney. If the bush is weak, only flowers with pedicels can be cut, it is better not to touch the leafy part of the shoot. It is not recommended to cut flowers from the bush in the first year after planting.

Removing faded flowers

For hybrid tea roses and floribunda roses, the removal of wilted flowers is a very significant step in care. It is important to remove the entire upper part of the shoot, the cut should be made over the second or third leaf, facing outward. By performing this simple action, you will help plants save the substances spent on the formation of fruits. Also, the removal of faded shoots stimulates the emergence of new buds. It is not required to remove wilted inflorescences for single-blooming varieties, and varieties that form ornamental fruits.

Thinning

Sometimes, after pruning, two shoots grow from some nodes. Usually, the weaker and growing shoot inside the bush is removed. The general rule of thinning is that all shoots growing inside the bush must be removed. This improves the ventilation of the bush, less risk of diseases of roses. Thinning is also carried out if your goal is to get single large flowers.

Conclusion

By following these simple steps to care for the bushes, you will get a healthy and beautiful rose garden.

And one more thing is very rarely mentioned in the manuals for the care of this plant, but it is worth considering: you should definitely find time to just sit near your beauties and admire them.

In conclusion, watch a video about caring for roses.