Grow Healthy Roses

Roses are king of flower. It is not easy but not too difficult to grow them in your garden. You only need to focus some basic points to get the great results.

Selecting a rose your garden

There a 4 basic attributes to consider when selecting roses for your garden:

1. Hardiness : Check with your local gardening center or florist for the best type of roses to grow in you climate. If you are a novice, you should look for disease resistant types of roses because they require a lot less maintenance.

2. Size :  Roses come in a wide range of sizes from miniature and groundcover roses that only grow to 12" tall to large climbing roses that can exceed 12' or more. Select a rose variety which fits the size requirements of the area. Roses are typically categorized as floribunda roses, shrub roses, grandiflora roses,limbing roses, miniature roses and hybrid tea roses.

3. Color: Roses come in a rainbow of colors from pure white to almost jet black.

4. Fragrance: You can select roses that are extremely fragrant to those that have no fragrance at all. Typically if a rose description does not list fragrance, then it probably has no scent.

Location to Plant your Rose:

Select a site with a full sun exposure for the majority of the day to plant your roses. Roses perform best and have the least amount of problems when they receive at least 7 hours of sun per day. Choose an area where the roots of the rose will not be in competition with the roots of other plants. While roses will tolerate a variety of soil conditions, selecting a location with good drainage is always preferable.

What to Fertilize your Roses With

Roses, especially the repeat flowering varieties, need a generous supply of nutrients regularly through the growing season although this should not be applied too close to the onset of winter. Slow release or organic fertilizers applied to the ground are the most effective; however foliar feeds are also valuable for a quick effect and to help keep the leaves healthy.

Keep your Roses Healthy Using Organic Methods

The best way to keep your plants free from pests and diseases is to start by selecting disease resistant varieties and then to grow them using only organic methods. Throw out other high nitrogen, synthetic fertilizers. Synthetic fertilizers promote fast flushes of new growth which in turn promote insect infestations. In addition, synthetic fertilizers only feed the top growth of the plant, doing little to promote a healthy, vigorous root system. That being said, even the healthiest of roses will at times get aphids or thrips.

Basic Summer Maintenance:

While your roses are blooming, dead-head spent blooms frequently. Dead-heading promotes the production of new blooms and does not allow the rose to produce hips. As fall approaches you can start to leaves the spent blooms on the rose to promote the growth of rose hips. Many hardy roses have spectacular rose hips such as William Baffin and Topaz Jewel that are very ornamental in the winter garden.