Spring Rose Care

It's just about that time of year here in Oregon when the forsythia's bright yellow flowers bloom, telling us it's time to prune the roses! Here are a few things we can do this spring and throughout the year to care for our beloved rose bushes.

• Prune
• Feed
• Water
• Mulch

Prune~

Roses benefit from a little care throughout the year, and that care can begin now regardless of whether your rose is newly planted or well established. While roses usually don’t require pruning in their first year, annual winter pruning is important for maintaining healthy canes and encouraging abundant blooms. Proper pruning promotes strong new growth and more vigorous flowering. Many people hesitate to cut back older growth when pruning, but removing it is actually an important part of keeping your rose healthy and thriving.

There's a few different types of roses that determine how you would prune them.

-Old roses ( Gallica, Damask, Moss, Alba...roses from before 1867) typically bloom only once which means you would not prune them the same year they would be blooming or you'll be cutting off this years flowering canes. This is the case for some ramblers as well. You can prune these roses right after their flowers are spent and then not again until their next bloom time is over the following year. All their new growth after you've pruned will be the wood that grows flowers the following year. 

-Modern roses have more than one flush and can be pruned at the end of winter, and deadheading after their first flush. Deadheading is trimming back the spent blooms on the stem till the leaves of five or you can just snap off the spent flowers and discard. This promotes the production of flowers on repeat flowering roses. You do not want to do a heavy pruning or fertilizing mid summer because you'll want the soft new canes to become semi woody before fall and the cold sets in. Pruning and fertilizing stimulates new growth that will be soft and tender and susceptible to damage when the freeze comes.

-Climbing roses can be either pruned into a shrub or their long canes secured horizontally. If you allow climbing roses' canes to just grow straight up you'll only have a flower on the top of each cane, BUT if you secure the main canes horizontally over an arch, wall or fence then every leaf bud will shoot up into a stem giving you many flowers. This is what you will prune off in winter, these flowering canes, not the main canes you've secured. 

When pruning cut out any dead canes, canes crossing or rubbing a main cane & those growing toward the center of the bush. Prune canes with disease down to a healthy wood & anything smaller than the diameter of a pencil. Prune any black stubs from last years pruning as these can harbor bacteria and cause die back. 

Cut at a diagonal right above an outward facing bud. This allows the new growth to grow out instead of inward crossing the center of the bush. I also defoliate just to make sure any aphids or disease that may be on the leaves is removed. You'll want to contain all these clippings and not add them to your compost.

Feed~

When the roses are waking up and putting all their energy into their new growth I like to give them a liquid fish emulsion fertilizer. These do have a smell but it goes away after a day or two. Liquid fish emulsion feed is to be diluted in a watering can or bucket and watered in. You can also use a sprayer with your fish emulsion to feed the rose from top to bottom after they have leafed out. Roses can absorb nutrients through their leaves. For a fish emulsion fertilizer, I love Neptune's Harvest or Alaska fish emulsion for everything from my roses to veggie starts. 

If you have compost or well rotted manure you can add this in your hole at planting time & each spring around the base of your plants, helping to amend the soil. Mulching around the base helps retain water & acts as a weed barrier.

Roses are hungry shrubs. I try to fertilize when they come out of dormancy and then after the first flush of blooms, but tend to only get to the first application. At the nursery we fertilize the roses with every watering using fish emulsion.

You can get a soil test to see what nutrients you are lacking if you notice something is off with your leaves or flowers. Nitrogen promotes healthy green foliage while Potassium effects bloom size and quality, while also regulating water in the plant's cells and overall health/disease resistance. Some shrubs, when given too much nitrogen will have nice leafy foliage, but may not be flowering due to not enough sunlight or a nutrient imbalance.

You won't want to fertilize at the end of summer, promoting new growth, because those new tender canes could be damaged in winter. You'll want their soft new canes from spring to harden up over summer.

Water~

Newer plantings no mater the plant need more attention when it comes to watering as their roots establish in their new home. 

Roses develop both deeper structural roots that help access moisture and anchor the plant, along with fine, hair-like feeder roots near the soil surface that absorb most of the plant’s water and nutrients. A long deeper soak is better than a light sprinkle here and there. Try your best to water in the evening or early morning when it's cooler, allowing less evaporation. 

A good approach for in-ground roses is:

• Water deeply so moisture reaches roughly 12–18 inches into the soil
• Allow the upper few inches of soil to begin drying before watering again
• Water less often, but more thoroughly

Keep an eye on how dry or moist the soil is and get to know your plants. Never let newer plantings dry out completely as their roots establish. More established roses can withstand drought periods though. It's a relationship and the more we are with our garden the more familiar and intuitive it all will all feel. Potted plants obviously will need more watering and fertilizing as they do not have as much root zone to absorb nutrients and water and heat up more quickly in a pot.

One more way we love to care for our roses is planting them with herbs as their companions to help bring in beneficial pollinators & beneficial predator insects, while also preventing disease & pests. Try inner-planting your roses with catmint, hyssop, lavender, salvia, rosemary or thyme. 

With love, Laura