I love having my kitchen gardens and fruit trees, but I absolutely love seeing the beauty of my rose bushes all over our farm. It brings me such joy! Once the first set of blooms begin I keep roses in our home until they are done in the fall. If your new to roses they can seem a bit of a mystery. I am not a pro, but I can share a few things I have learned over the years with caring for my own roses. I hope this helps and encourages you to plant some roses around the house, or just to put a potted bush on your porch this year!
1. Plant food
Roses are absolutely beautiful, but they aren’t capable of feeding themselves. If they need nutrients, you will have to provide it. If your not composting yourself then I would look for a slow release fertilizer. This way your roses enjoy a nice slow and steady intake of food.
2. Egg shells
Eggs shells are so full of nutrients for your roses! However people make the mistake of tossing eggshells straight into the soil around the plant. This actually will hurt your rose bush since the eggshells will need to decompose first. Make sure to crush the egg shells up very fine, then you can turn them into your soil around the roses.
3. Deadhead
If you allow the roses to die and fall off on their own it wastes a lot of energy that could go to creating new blooms! Plus your keeping your plant more tidy and giving air flow to the center which helps eliminate diseases! Go down the stem to the first set of 5 leaves and clip behind that. If you clip at the 3 leaf point it will produce blind wood (stems without blooms).
4. Water in the morning or evening
If you water a rose bush during midday heat this will not only burn the leaves, but more water will evaporate than absorb. In the morning your water will soak completely into the soil!
5. Mulch
Mulch around the base of your plant. A good 6 inches of mulch will help not only you be able to water less but also protect from disease around the base.
6. Pruning
For some reason this sounds so daunting! But if you prune here and there it keeps your bush much happier. I’m not talking about moving in with shears and giving the plant an entire haircut, but rather if you see stems that look unhealthy or dead foliage, simply clip it off! And make sure no spent buds or foliage is hanging around the base of the plant. Remove all of this!
7. Sun light
This is a simple one, but unless the roses state they need shade most roses need 4 to 6 hours of sunlight every day!
8. Pests
I mix 1 tsp vegetable oil, 1 tbsp dish soap and 1 cup water to spay pests. Also my handiest pest control yet have been my ducks! Sounds funny, but they clean my plants of bugs constantly!
9. Support
Make sure you know the type of your rose bush. That will tell you a lot about the type of support your rose bush will need! I like to tie mine with simple brown twine.
10. Black spot
If you notice black spot on your roses immediately remove that and place it in a bag. Never allow the infected foliage to touch other rose plants or other parts of the plant. It can spread on contact. If you’ve cut it off with clippers make sure you wash that before using it on the plant again.
Hopefully these tips will help you have a better understanding caring for your rose plants! Remember the best way to learn is just start somewhere. Get a few roses bushes and begin caring for them. Good luck!