As a hit song once said, “I never promised you a rose garden.” However, in light of a greater selection of low-maintenance and floriferous roses these days, you easily can promise yourself or someone else a beautiful rose garden. Perhaps you have an existing garden that simply needs some attention to ensure a
gorgeous spring display. If you are installing a new rose garden, select the right roses and plant them between now and spring. Either way, you will want to know how to prune your roses to make them look and perform their best.
When many homeowners think of roses, they think of the hybrid tea roses that demand so much care and attention to perform well. Trying to grow hybrid teas frustrates most homeowners because they must be sprayed, fertilized and watered on a rigorous schedule. The roses that will give homeowners the greatest success are what the Texas A&M University Agriculture program calls EarthKind roses. The 15 roses that made this prestigious list, which continues to grow as new selections meet the rigorous criteria, were planted in native soil with no amendments — they were not fertilized, sprayed with any pesticides, pruned other than to remove dead wood and received no supplemental watering after the first year. Visit http://earthkindroses.
tamu.edu to learn more about these tough and superb roses. EarthKind roses might be your best bet for a successful rose garden this year.
PLANTING YOUR ROSE GARDEN
If you are installing a new rose garden, select a site that gets six hours to eight hours of full sun. Next, remove any unwanted vegetation where the rose bed will be. During the summer, you can kill existing grass with a glyphosate herbicide. During the winter, you will have to hand dig any grass or weeds in the bed. If you have clay soil, apply 3 inches of expanded shale over the bed site and rototill into the existing clay soil. Expanded shale
loosens and aerates the tight, heavy clay. Next, apply 3 inches of aged compost over the bed and rototill it into the expanded shale mix. You now have created an organically enriched, aerated raised bed that will provide a wonderful growing medium for your roses. (If you have sandy soil, apply only 3 inches of compost and rototill into the soil.) Plant your roses in the bed and then mulch 2 inches to 3 inches thick with an organic mulch,
such as cypress or shredded hardwood mulch.
TIME TO PRUNE
Once your roses are established, you need to prune them. As you prepare to prune, keep in mind the reasons for pruning: to maintain a reasonable shape and size. Pruning removes dead, diseased or spindly growth and stimulates new growth and flower production. It also increases air circulation within the center of the bush and therefore helps reduce fungal
problems on the foliage.
Before you start pruning, make sure you have the right equipment. For cutting stems and canes up to 1/2 inch in diameter, use only scissors-style (by-pass) pruners because they leave a nice, clean cut. Anvil pruners often crush as they cut. For canes larger than 1/2 inch, use scissors-type hedge shears or loppers. Wear gloves to protect your hands and wrists from prickles. To be on the safe side, mix a 10 percent bleach solution — one part
bleach and nine parts water. Dip your pruners in this solution as you finish pruning one bush and before pruning the next bush. Disinfecting pruners in this manner prevents transmission of diseases from one plant to another. Finally, procure some white glue. After
making cuts, apply the glue to the cut surface to seal the wound and prevent invasion by insects or disease.
Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, is the recommended time to prune repeat-flowering roses such as hybrid teas, grandifloras, floribundas, shrub roses and many old garden roses. Roses that bloom only once a year, such as most climbers and species roses, should be pruned
after blooming in the spring. These spring bloomers produce flowers on old wood — canes that have hardened over a winter — rather than on new wood. Pruning in February would only remove the spring flowers on these roses. The other time of the year to prune is late summer, around Sept. 1, to stimulate a good fall bloom. Between spring and fall pruning, you can deadhead your roses to keep them looking tidy. Repeat-blooming roses form their flowers on new growth, so the more they are pruned and stimulated to grow, the more flowers they will produce. However, during the heat of summer when even night temperatures are in the 80s and 90s, deadheading won’t stimulate much new growth and bloom because the roses have entered a heat dormancy.
Begin pruning by removing dead canes and any dead stubs from live canes. Remove any canes with stem canker or fungal diseases by cutting the infected cane at an unblemished bud eye below the diseased area. Then clean out any weak, spindly growth and interior clutter. Next, cut off the twiggy ends of each cane, eventually removing at least one-third of every cane. Make all cuts at a 45-degree angle, about 1/4 inch above a bud eye that faces away from the center of the rose bush. This way growth will be directed outward and the center of the bush will remain open for good air circulation, which will help reduce fungal infestation.
For larger but fewer flowers on your hybrid teas, cut out all but three to five canes. Remove the thickest, oldest wood first and cut as close as you can to the base of the plant. Also, clear canes from the core of the bush, which should remain as open as possible. Shorten the remaining canes to a height of 6 inches to 12 inches. For smaller but more flowers on your hybrid teas, remove old, spent canes and trim the remaining canes by one-third. When you have finished pruning, sprinkle half a cup of Epsom Salt around the bush — a procedure that is beneficial for every type of rose, not just hybrid teas. This dose of magnesium encourages the plant to send up strong shoots from the lower bud eyes. The lower bud eyes will produce stronger canes and larger flowers.
When pruning ramblers and climbers, remove about one-third of the plant’s total bulk, cutting out the oldest, thickest canes and any dead wood first. Don’t shorten or cut back the healthy canes; just thin the entire plant. Tie remaining canes onto the supporting structure. For maximum flowering, bend canes downward when training them onto latticework or a fence, or wrap them around a pillar or an arch.
Shrub roses include many modern English roses (such as those developed by David Austin) as well as floribundas, old garden roses and even miniatures. When pruning these, remove old and tangled wood to improve air circulation. Also remove any crossing
canes, which can inflict wounds as they rub together. Then, shorten remaining branches
by one-third.
ROSE GARDEN SUCCESS
By following these simple steps in selecting, planting and pruning roses, you will certainly promise yourself a rose garden. In fact, things will be “coming up roses” in your landscape. Learn more about growing roses from the Fort Worth Rose Society (817.871.7671) or the Dallas Rose Society (www.dallasrosesociety.org).
___________________________________________
Steve Huddleston is the senior horticulturist at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, an official bird sanctuary and refuge for many forms of wildlife.
___________________________________________
SUBSCRIBE to House&Home now to receive 12 months of home and garden trends and ideas.
PICK US UP at hundreds of locations in Houston, Dallas or contact your local House&Home for location and subscription information. |
Click here to
view or print
the entire article
848kb file
(Adobe Acrobat
Reader 5.0 or later
required)
Click here
to download
Acrobat Reader
|
