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Archive for the roses tag

How do I care for transplanted roses in spring?

March 31, 2022   •   Leave a Comment

climbing roses
On your climbing roses, if you have laid the canes down on the soil and covered them up, now is the time to uncover and gently lift the canes up and attach them again to their support structure.

Last October, I transplanted two climbing roses and a standard rose bush. What should I be doing for them this spring?

There are four basic tasks for transplanted roses. First, carefully remove winter protection about the time you see crocus and tulips emerging from the ground. That indicates the ground temperature is warming slowly and your roses will be taking up moisture soon. If any of your roses were grafted, expose the graft union and check for growth buds on the rootstock (below the graft). You do not want to encourage these rootstock sprouts—remove them. On your climbers, if you have laid the canes down on the soil and covered them up, now is the time to uncover and gently lift the canes up and attach them again to their support structure.
The second task is pruning in April, when you start to see bud swell on the canes and branches, or around the time forsythias bloom. Remove dead branches and prune for air circulation, crossing branches and aesthetic cane length based on the supports.
The third step is their first feeding, which can be done at pruning time. A general slow-release fertilizer blended for roses is great. Spread it at the dripline and gently scratch it into the soil. Roses are heavy feeders. Many rose growers use organic supplements, such as fish emulsion or additional slow-release granular fertilizer, once a month until August to keep them healthy against disease and insect attack.
Lastly, as the roses start to push out leaves and new growth, apply a preventative spray for fungal diseases like black spot. A horticultural oil spray later in May into June can help with insect problems.

Related: How to grow great roses: Pruning and fertilizing

Filed Under: Ask MG Tagged With: climbing, roses, standard, transplanted

How to grow great roses: Pruning and fertilizing

April 21, 2021   •   Leave a Comment

The rose is the queen of the flowers. With proper planning and a little loving care, you can be rewarded with beautiful rose blooms year after year. Here are some springtime guidelines to make sure you get the most out of your roses.

Pruning timing

Perhaps no other aspect of rose care is as misunderstood or feared as pruning. It’s actually quite simple.
Rule Number 1: Prune your roses in the spring, usually in April or May—never in the fall. How much you prune is another matter, which brings us to Rule Number 2: You can’t kill a rose with improper pruning. You might give it a bad-looking season, but you won’t kill it. Some pruning practices for specific roses:

Repeat-blooming roses, such as miniatures, hybrid teas, floribundas and shrub roses, bloom best on “new growth.” You create new growth by cutting back these roses by 1/3 to 1/2 early each spring when the forsythia blooms.

Climbers bloom best on “old wood.” So, in late April, prune out just the winter-killed or damaged canes. You don’t want to prune them back too far; knee-level is good. You won’t kill the plant if you prune it further, but you won’t see its best bloom either. Wait until late June to perform major size reductions if needed.

Rugosa roses are repeat bloomers, but like climbers, it’s best to wait until late June for major pruning. In early spring (like April), all you need to do is clip off any winter-killed tips. Note that rugosas are slow to wake up in the spring, and the dormant canes are often gray and look dead—don’t worry, they’re not. So wait until they are leafed out before pruning.

Once-a-year blooming antique roses and ramblers perform best if you wait until late June, after their spring bloom, for major pruning. In April and May, just prune out the winter-kill and damaged canes, then stand back. You’ll be treated to massive and wondrous June blooms that isn’t matched by other roses.

Pruning techniques

The first rule here: use a quality pair of bypass pruners. The second rule: keep them sharp, and learn how to sharpen them properly. Pruning practices to help you get started:

  • Most people tend to under-prune. Don’t be shy. Use those quality pruners and cut the canes low.
  • Miniature and shrubby roses with many canes can be pruned with just about anything, even hedge trimmers.
  • With hybrid tea roses, prune out canes that are very spindly or so old that the bark has turned brown. Also, prune out overlapping canes from the center of the bush to open it up. The end result should be 5 or 6 plump, green canes. With floribunda or repeat-blooming shrub roses, it’s all right if you end up with more canes. In fact, it’s desirable.
  • Cut about 1/2 inch above a “bud eye,” the bump on the cane. New growth starts from the bud eye closest to the cut. Before you cut, be sure that the bud eye is facing the outside of the bush, not the inside.

Fertilizing roses

Before discussing fertilizers, let’s start with your soil. Get it tested. Contact your Michigan State University Extension (go to www.MichiganGardener.com > “Resources” > “Garden Help”). MSU will provide you with a form to complete and return to them along with your soil samples. On that form, point out that the soil will be used for growing roses.

Now on to fertilizers. Question: what do roses and teenagers have in common? Right! They both consume enormous amounts of food. Like teenagers, roses require a continual supply of food during their growth and blooming periods. This is especially true with repeat bloomers.

In general, roses perform best when you use a well-balanced fertilizer. There are several commercial blends that contain natural materials like bone meal, fish emulsion and blood meal. These organic blends help improve the soil structure in addition to providing nutrients. If you have a yearning to be unique, you can make your own home blend of organic fertilizer. Include a variety of components to your mix, not just one or two. Like people, roses need a well-balanced diet to be healthy. Whatever organic fertilizer you use, remember to apply it 3 to 4 times a year, starting in late April.

You can also augment your granulated fertilizer applications with a quick-acting liquid fertilizer. This kind of fertilizer should be used as a supplement to your regular applications, rather than an alternative. If you decide to use a liquid fertilizer, I suggest using it at half the recommended strength.

Whatever fertilizer you select, avoid granular products that contain systemic insecticide. While they perform well as a fertilizer, the insecticide component poisons the soil and kills the desirable earthworms. Further, their insecticide components are not all that effective.

Growing great roses: The 5 essentials

To thrive, roses need five things. Look around your yard and find where nature will amply provide two of the essential ingredients: 1) sunlight, and 2) air. You provide the other three: 3) water, 4) fertilizer, and 5) love.

Specifically, plant your roses where they will receive at least six hours of direct sunlight daily, and where the air circulates freely to prevent disease. Keep in mind that roses love water and lots of it, but not standing in pools. So, select a site that offers good drainage. Be prepared to supplement nature’s rainfall with regular waterings of your own. Also reward your roses with fertilizer, and they will reward you with dazzling blooms.

One more thing on site selection. Choose a place that is easily visible from your home. Not just so you can enjoy the full display of brilliant colors, but so you can readily see and react to little problems that may occur before they become big ones.

Growing roses is fun and very satisfying. You soon may be answering the question from friends and neighbors alike: “How do you grow such beautiful roses?”

Nancy Lindley is the former co-owner of Great Lakes Roses.

RELATED: Maintaining climbing roses

RELATED: Why Are My Roses Changing Color?

Filed Under: Raising Roses Tagged With: fertilizing, pruning, roses

Famed rose breeder David Austin dies at age 92

January 3, 2019   •   Leave a Comment

David Austin, the rosarian and founder of David Austin Roses Ltd., died in December, 2018 at age 92. Over the past 20 years, U.S. and Canadian gardeners came to know Austin as the creator of beautiful, fragrant English roses.

He bred more than 200 English roses during his extraordinary career. From a farming background, Austin developed a keen interest in old roses in his early twenties. He felt that although the old roses were charming and often had magnificent fragrances, they were lacking in the color diversity and repeat blooming common to the more modern hybrid teas. This belief was the basis for the collection of English roses that gardeners enjoy today. He set about creating an entirely new rose, which combined the beauty and fragrance of old roses with the benefits of modern roses. His first English rose was ‘Constance Spry,’ launched in 1961. Notable varieties include ‘Gertrude Jekyll’—twice voted England’s favorite rose—and more recently, ‘Olivia Rose Austin.’

David Austin Jr., son and Managing Director of the company for the last 25 years said, “My father was a remarkable man. His love for the art of rose breeding was truly inspiring; he loved nothing more than seeing the pleasure that his roses gave to others.
His presence will be sorely missed within the global family company that he created. But the passion he instilled will continue and we will hold true to my father’s vision when he founded the company almost 50 years ago.”

Filed Under: Clippings Tagged With: David Austin, english roses, rose breeder, roses

What is the difference between own-root and grafted roses?

May 7, 2018   •   Leave a Comment

What is the difference between own-root and grafted roses? Is one better than the other?

Own-root roses are produced by rooting and growing the cuttings of desired varieties. The types produced by this method often include Antiques, Flower Carpet, Meidiland and many Shrub varieties. Most own-root roses do not need ground level protection in winter once they are established.

Budded (or grafted) roses are produced by inserting a bud of a desired variety onto a vigorous rootstock. The types produced by budding include Hybrid Teas, Grandifloras, Floribundas, Climbing and English varieties, as well as a few from the Antique and Shrub groups. Budded roses should be planted with their swollen bud union 1 to 2 inches below the surface, plus have winter protection each year to help them survive our cold Michigan climate.

Few rose varieties are produced using both methods, so the question of one method being “better” than the other really does not apply. Since the propagation method relates to the type of rose, your choice is really determined by the rose producers and their experience of which one works best for that particular variety.

Filed Under: Ask MG Tagged With: Floribundas, Grandifloras, Hybrid Teas, own-root, root grafted, roses, shrub

Healthy-looking rose bushes fail to bloom

July 13, 2015   •   Leave a Comment

I have 6 rose bushes that get morning sun. The foliage looks great but I get no roses. I inherited these plants when I bought the house and I don’t know anything about them. I have good drainage and have given them rose fertilizer. C.M., Allenton

Your roses with no blooms are more than likely not receiving enough direct sunlight. In order to produce flowers, roses must have full sun, which is usually defined as a minimum of 6 to 8 hours of direct sunshine. Morning sun doesn’t sound like it fulfills that requirement. Perhaps the rose bushes have become shaded as the surrounding landscape has matured and trees and shrubs have grown larger, creating shade where there was once full sun. If that is the case you have two options.

First, it may be possible to prune back the offending trees or plants that are creating the afternoon shade, thereby allowing more sunshine to the roses. In a mature landscape that can be difficult due to the probable destruction of the aesthetics provided by the larger plants. A second and more viable option is to simply transplant the roses to a new space with the full sun they need. The best time to transplant roses is in the very early spring, while they are still dormant, before any new leaves have sprouted. You can get a jump on the process by digging and preparing the new rose bed this growing season in anticipation of the big move. Then, next spring, dig each bush with the largest root ball you can handle and move them into the light.

Filed Under: Ask MG Tagged With: bloom, fail, rose bushes, roses

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