Rose Care
Roses are very beautiful flowers loved by many people across the world; the rose has always been a symbol of love and affection. With the sweet smell and the beautiful flowers these plants produce, it is quite impossible not to have some type of rose plant in your garden.
PHC is a strategy of keeping roses stress free by different factors allowing the growth and maintenece of the plant. The results of PHC is that rose bushes in a healthy condition are less likely to get infested by insects and diseases than other plants under stress.
When you first start to plant your roses, make sure that you plant the crown of the rose at least 3 centimetres below the crown. Fill in and around with soil and tamp it down taking care not to break the root ball. For the first twenty days the roses must be watered regulary; this will allow your new rose bush to grow healthy.
With a little bit of effort and care, you will have excellent looking rose bushes with large blooms that will last for most of the summer. When you have established roses, it is nice to prune or cut a few and put them in a vase. Beware not to prune or cut too many stems of your new rose bushes as they need time to grow successfully.
When deciding how many rose bushes you want in your garden, spread them out away from each other. This will help the plant to find it’s own space and grow properly. Best time to plant new rose bushes is in early spring when all the frost has gone. When transplanting last season’s rose bushes, make sure you cut all dead leaves and tidy up the bush as this will help new growth.
If you have climbing roses, prune all the stems down while dormant as this allows the plant to grow new healthy stems starting in spring. Sometimes you’ll find a diseased plant; give it a good spraying with a fungal insectcide. I always give my plants a good fertilizer in the months leading up till about the end of September.
Mid-Spring: Watch for rose slugs and either handpick, spray with a superfine horticultural oil, or use a systemic insecticide. Fertilize roses again after the first flush of flowers. Watch for shoots coming from the rootstock below the graft and remove. After the soil warms, apply a generous layer of organic mulch.
Growing roses in a cold climate can cause you a few problems in winter, but this is easily overcome.To help rose plants through harsh winters, just cover the bottom of the plant with earth or compost after the ground has frozen. Climbing roses can be taken down from their supports, laid down on the ground and covered with soil. This procedure is only viable for the smaller climbing roses.
