SPRING AWAKENING FOR ROSES

[grandpasrose]

Spring Awakening for Roses
Written by Val Winthrope February 18,2006

In late spring, the sign that you can uncover your roses is when the branches on the trees that are natural to your area begin to show swelling leaf buds. As soon as winter is finished and the days are getting longer and warmer, you should remove any mulch. Leaving them covered with mulch could cause suffocation and rot when spring is well on its way.
When the soil has thawed and a hard freeze is no longer expected, carefully remove soil or mulch (or whatever you winterized with) from around established plants so that you don't damage any shoots that have begun growth.
You can usually just pull your winterizing material from the base of the roses and spread it in your other beds. This material will be full of nutrients and will do your other beds some good.
Clear away any prunings and dead leaves left from last fall.
Wash away the last of the winterizing material from the centre of the bush with a gentle stream of water.

Fertilizing

Roses are very heavy feeders, and need to be fed consistently if you are to have your roses flourish.
Roses will benefit from feeding about three times a year. The first will be when the spring cleanup has been completed. Fertilize established roses with organic fertilizers such as seaweed, fish emulsion, well-rotted manure, alfalfa pellets, bone and blood meal, Epsom salts, rose tea and compost. don't fertilize newly planted roses with anything but bonemeal this first time, to assist their roots in establishing themselves. The next application of fertilizer should be just before the peak of blooming (June), and then once more in late summer or early fall. Later applications are not recommended, as the roses need to begin their dormancy phase before winter sets in.
Feed your roses regularly during their period of active growth with well-rotted manure or compost. Add some sulfate of potash to blood and bone meal, as it lacks potassium. Spray seaweed onto the leaves, in the afternoon, every 2 to 3 weeks. This raises the pH of the leaf surface and adds trace elements, improving disease resistance
You should never fertilize a dry plant, and fertilizer should always be applied at ground level. Do not spray nutrients on leaves in the hot sun, and make sure the foliage is dry by nightfall.

Watering

Roses need regular watering in order to produce the biggest and most beautiful blooms. Make sure that when you water, the moisture reaches down to the bottom of the roots, which is generally about eighteen inches. It is better to give a good watering once a week or so rather than a light sprinkle every other day. Good deep watering will develop a healthy root system resulting in a vigorous healthy rose bush, able to resist drought, whereas shallow watering encourages the roots to stay shallow. As well, try to water with a hose or drip system from underneath the leaves and avoid overhead watering as leaving water on the rose leaves themselves can encourage disease. Remember, however, that roses do not like to have wet soggy feet either. don't saturate the soil so much that the soil never dries out. This eliminates any oxygen in the soil, starving the roots of much needed oxygen.

Mulches

Mulches are important to keep the roots cool, retain moisture, protect roots from cultivation, suppress soil borne diseases, and to reduce weed growth. It prevents the soil surface from hardening, or becoming compacted. Organic mulches also improve the soil as they decompose, releasing nutrients into the soil for the roses. Mulches should not be applied until all debris such as dead branches, leaves etc.have been removed from the bed to prevent disease spreading.
Organic mulches can include compost, well-rotted manure, pine or spruce needles (watch your soil acidity with these though) shredded leaves, shredded bark, straw, cocoa bean shells, rice hulls, ground corn cobs, or grass clippings.
Apply your mulch to a depth of 3 or 4 inches, keeping the mulch an inch or two away from the base of the rose.

[b]PRUNING[/b]

Pruning roses isn't as tricky or as difficult as we are all afraid it is.
Roses, such as hybrid teas, definitely need pruning and it is better to have a go at it and try, than to leave them unpruned. All roses are very resilient and forgiving, and will survive however you prune them, still flowering despite your worst efforts. The right time to prune varies with the climatic area and the rose variety. Climate often determines the best pruning time. In warmer areas, roses normally need a light fall pruning and a more thorough spring pruning.

Pruning Northern or Cold Climates

If you live in a cold climate, the decisions about what to prune are made a little easier. When the winter snow and freezing temperatures occur often, the amount of die back of the canes on your roses often decides where pruning will take place.

If you are like me, and cut your roses down in order to winterize them, there is only about 18 inches of the canes left to deal with in the spring after the mulch has been taken away. If you have left them uncovered through winter, then you will have more pruning to do.
From here, follow the regular pruning methods explained below.

General Spring Pruning

It is very important that all pruning cuts be made with sharp, well-cleaned, shears or pruners.
In the spring, newly planted roses should be cut back quite severely, leaving only three strong canes 4-5 inches long. This encourages the production of stronger growth for a solid foundation.
All the pruning cuts you make should be made at a 45-degree angle. Make each cut about one quarter to one half inch above an outward facing bud. This means that the new growth will be outward, away from the center of the plant which improves air circulation and therefore reduces disease and gives the rose bush an attractive overall shape. The stem remaining beyond the bud should never be long enough to hang a hat on. If possible, dab on a bit of pruning seal after each cut. If you don't have that, some gardeners substitute white glue. This prevents disease from developing in your cut.

When established rose bushes are pruned, the branches need to be cut back to the live wood, as indicated by the white pith, where there is live or green tissue. It should look light colored and healthy, not dark and porous.
Remove any wood that is diseased, broken or injured in any way to ground level. Dead branches need to be removed completely to the base of the rose bush. Remove all the twiggy and spindly growth that is thinner than a pencil, and any crossing shoots as well. Suckers are healthy looking canes that grow from below the grafted section on the main stem of the rose bush, and should be removed right from where they start.
Make sure you also remove any diseased or blighted leaves from the bush itself and from the ground surrounding it. Then prune to improve the shape of the plant if needed.

Specialty Pruning

Pruning hybrid teas, floribunda, or grandiflora roses.
Where winter temperatures or winds may be damaging, and it is not cold enough to do a major winterizing of your roses, it is best not to prune severely in fall. Take off only the tops of the canes with branching growth that tends to catch the wind. When pruning later in the spring it will mean a more thorough cutting back.
Spring pruning needs to cut stems to about half the length they have grown the previous season. Do not cut back hybrid teas, floribundas and related types to less than 18 inches unless they have been winter killed lower than this.
Refer to general spring pruning for more detailed instructions.

Climbers

The pruning of climbers differs slightly from hybrid teas. The very vigorous types, known as ramblers, should be pruned in the late spring immediately after they have finished flowering. All the old canes that have flowered should be removed right to the base of the plant. This will force young vigorous canes to grow for blooming next year.
Prune climbing roses on a regular basis or it can become a very difficult task if it is neglected for a few years. Attach the long canes horizontally to a support, and this will encourage short flowering stems, called ‘spurs’ to grow, giving you more blooms. Every year remove some of the older canes, encouraging new canes to replace them. Trim back any spurs on the canes that remain.
Refer to general spring pruning for more detailed instructions.

Climbing hybrid teas and some other large-flowered, everblooming climbers

These roses don't need as severe pruning as others. Many should need little or no pruning for the first few years. Prune them only to keep their shape and to remove any dead canes. Prune these climbers late in the dormant period, just as leaf buds appearing in the trees that are natural to your area are showing swelling. Maintain two to three major canes and allow the new, vigorous canes to develop from the base. After they have developed, remove any old canes close to ground level and maintain the basic two or three vigorous basal canes. The best blooms of hybrid climbing teas are produced on short branches coming from 2- to 3-year-old wood. Let these short branches remain and cut them back to two or three vigorous buds per shoot. During summer, deadhead the blooms as soon as they have faded.
Refer to General Spring Pruning for more detailed instructions.

"Old-fashioned" species and shrub roses

This group of roses represents many different growth habits. Proper pruning results from your becoming familiar with the growth habit of your particular type. In general, pruning of these types is often no more than trimming back canes to shape the plants, removing dead flowers and branches, or removing old poor-growing canes as the new vigorous ones develop.
How tall you leave your bush depends on the type of rose that you have and where it is situated. In general you want to encourage a bowl shape shrub with new growth facing outward.
Refer to General Spring Pruning for more detailed instructions[/b]

PLEASE NOTE: THIS THREAD HAS BEEN LOCKED AS IT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS, FEEL FREE TO POST TO THE FORUM.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Considered, concise, and correct. Very nice work Val.

Val is proof that with forethought and a little work, you can grow roses almost anywhere. Her knowledge is born of experience and we are most lucky to have her here...

Scott

[grandpasrose]

Thank you Scott, that is very nice of you to say! I appreciate it.

Val

[opabinia51]

Wow Val, that looks great!

[grandpasrose]

Thanks alot Opa!

Val