Plant Your Rose Garden Carefully

Roses are a favorite with many gardeners and with good reason! These beautiful and aromatic flowers have been around for over 3000 years and have been a cherished aphrodisiac since biblical times.

Roses can be a bit tricky to grow, but are well worth the effort. One important factor in whether your roses will thrive or not is where you plant them. Choose an area that gets 4 to 6 hours of sun every day and that won’t eventually be overshadowed by taller plants growing up.

It is preferable not to plant too many trees or other plants around the rose bush because most of these are likely to either mix with the rose or stifle it's growth. If you are replacing an old rose bush, approximately 1 1/2 cubic feet of old soil should be removed, and fresh soil added to replace it. When positioning your rose in the garden or landscape, consider the growth habit of the rose.

If you have roses that like to climb, then put them somewhere where they have things to attach themselves too. A trellis is a great way to show off your climbing roses as is an arbor or a garden fence. If you give your roses what they want, they will reward you with beautiful large blooms.

Roses also look beautiful in island beds interplanted with perennials. Miniature roses make great edging plants in front of their taller cousins. Planted singly, shrub roses make excellent specimen plants or they can be clustered to make a flowering hedge. You can also use them to camouflage unsightly garden objects.

How to Plant Roses

If you want your roses to do well, you must plant them carefully. First, take your roses out of the box or container they came in and set them in your garden to figure out the best spot. You may need to move them around a bit to find the perfect configuration, but better to do this now than to plant them and have to dig them up because they don’t look right!

Once you have figured out exactly where to place them, dig a hole large enough for the root mass and loosen the bottom of the hole. You should take care to make sure you are planting it at the proper depth for your climate. The colder the climate, the deeper they should be planted, but check with your local gardening store if you are not sure. If you are buying potted roses, you should plant them about 1 inch deeper than their potted level. You should also add bone meal to the bottom of the hole, which is a slow acting source of phosphorus that leads to healthy root growth in the rose plant.

Now gently place the plant in the hole and refill the hole with most of the soil. Make sure you cover the roots. With about ¼ of the soil still out of the hole, water thoroughly letting the soil absorb the water. Then add the rest of the soil mounding it about 6 inches high. The dome will keep the stems from drying out until the plant is rooted. Gradually remove the excess soil as the leaves open.

When To Plant Roses

The best time to plant roses varies depending on the winter temperature. Where temperatures don't drop below -10 degrees F; either fall or spring planting is satisfactory. If you live in an area where winter temperatures go below -10 degrees F, spring planting is preferred. Plants should be planted in a dormant condition if purchased bare root, but container grown plants may be planted throughout the growing season.

Spacing of the rose plant is highly influenced by the temperature. In regions where winters are severe, the rose plant does not grow as large as in mild climates. Taking this into consideration, hybrid tea roses should be spaced 1 1/2 to 3 feet apart. Large vigorous growers, such as hybrid perpetuals need 3 to 5 feet of space, and the climbers need from 8 to 10 feet of space.

If the winter temperature is below 10 degrees F, roses can grow healthy if proper care is taken. The gardener must prepare for that cold, wet reality as he revels in the summer air conditioning.

In zones 7 and colder, the roses enjoy their last fertilization of the season by August 15th to limit the emergence of new rose canes, which will almost certainly not survive the winter.