I. Rose selection:
a. Color – coordinate color with other plants in the borders and with interior spaces, so they can accentuate the rooms of your home.
b. Select roses based on the type of rose arrangements you prefer to make – hybrid tea roses, like Abraham Lincoln, with long stems and tight buds, are dramatic and formal, whereas floribunda or miniature roses are more informal and when combined with other companion plants, like scented geraniums, can be whimsical and romantic.
c. You can choose to plant roses in one area of the garden and arrange them by color and type or disperse them in a mixed border. In a well-planned rose garden, roses are arranged by height and graduate in height from front to back, creating layers or waves of color. It is nice to graduate color by value from tints to shades and have more than one rose of the same type, preferably 3 to 5, to avoid a kaleidoscopic effect.
d. Use companion plants with roses, like delphiniums, dianthus, penstemon, and scabiosa, or grey, neutral-colored plant foils, like artemisia, to accentuate the rose color. Essentially, you are making a living bouquet in your garden, or composing a still life painting.
e. Special form roses can be very useful for certain type of spaces, such as a tree rose in a glazed pot near the front entrance of your home. Miniature roses are effective in a raised bed when elevated and closer to the eye. Iceberg floribunda type roses make a wonderful hedge row but appear weak and amorphic in shape when used alone. Ground cover type roses can be effective if a complementary color and planted under a flowering tree, such as a Floss Silk tree or Tabebuia or Japanese Maple.
II. When to prune your roses:
a. Winter – late January – early February and before buds swell.
b. Timing: objective is to time roses for first bloom in mid-April – early May.
c. Rose bloom cycle is every 4 to 6 weeks.
d. Don’t prune one-time bloomers until after they bloom to avoid losing a season of blooms.
e. Roses wake up when night temperatures are above 50 degrees.
III. Pruning methods:
a. Start by removing dead and diseased canes; if brown, black, or if tissue is mottled and cracked, remove cane.
b. Next, remove crossing canes and sucker growth from below graft union; check that soil and mulch are not riding up on the crown of the plant to avoid disease and rot of the rose bush.
c. Reduce canes to six or so dominant canes to promote health and build the structure of the rose.
d. Reduce height to about one foot below desired height to allow for new growth to reach ultimate desired height.
e. The above recommendations are generalized and depend on the rose type.
f. Some may need to be pruned differently. Floribundas can actually be hedged and then pruned with hand pruners to provide more open structure.
g. Prune to outward facing bud, making a cut about ¼ inch above the bud. This is to maintain optimal light levels and airflow between foliage to prevent diseases.
IV. Use Clean sharp tools:
a. Bypass type pruners and loppers; keep them sharpened.
b. Disinfect with isopropyl alcohol by spraying cutting blade and anvil with isopropyl alcohol. Tools can spread diseases, such as fungus and viruses, i.e., black spot, rust, a fungal disease, powdery mildew, blight.
c. If cane is larger in diameter than a pencil, then use loppers instead of hand pruners.
V. Prune to an angle:
a. It is mainly for visual appearance; no glue or other substance need be applied to cut canes.
b. Don’t make it complicated.
VI. Prune to shape and size:
a. Must use imagination and factor in the element of time to size rose bush so when it blooms, it is at the right height.
b. Shape to fit the space and to prevent plants running together.
VII. Disease control:
a. Water in early morning, just before dawn to avoid prolonged periods of wet foliage which fosters potential diseases.
b. Avoid using blowers near roses and other plants as they spread diseases.
c. Use baking soda to control powdery mildew.
d. Use sprays on the foliage to control disease, such as a lightweight oil called Neem oil.
e. At end of season, remove all old foliage and rake up old leaves from ground and export from property to avoid the spread of disease.
VIII. Fertilization:
a. Use organics and apply the first time after foliage turns from reddish bronze to green and again after each major deadheading of roses to stimulate new buds and blooms.
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