Tips for Rose Garden Maintenance

Tips for Rose Garden Maintenance

- Planting and maintaining a rose garden is an effective way to add beauty and luxury to your house.

- Different kinds of roses must be pruned at different times of the year. Repetitive bloomers should be pruned during their dormant season in late winter. For spring roses, prune just after they bloom unless you're cutting old or diseased stems. These can be cut during winter. The first thing you'll want to do is thin out dead or old canes by cutting full shoots down to a point where they join with stronger, healthier stalks.

- Branches that are entangled throughout the bush should be removed. Then trim the remaining branches accordingly to enhance potential growth and flowering.
 

- One of the most basic types of pruning is called deadheading. This involves cutting off some of the blooms which actually promotes further flower production. Funny the way things work! If you want to get the best of both worlds, indoors and outdoors, deadhead right when the bloom is beginning to open. Then you can place these flowers in your home to decorate while taking care of your garden. Cut back to a point that is just above a leaf with five leaflets on the outside of the plant. For strong, full-grown roses, cut to a spot that is two to three sets of leaves below the flower. For younger or weaker plants, cut higher. Use pruning shears and keep the cut at a 45 degree angle going down from the outside of the stalk toward the inside. For thicker stalks, use a pruning saw.

- Hybrid tea roses and grandifloras should be pruned by about a third of their overall size in areas with mild winters and a little more in harsher climates, while for floribundas and polyanthas, you should cut slightly less. Old garden roses and shrub roses only need the tips cut back above a bud that is facing in the direction that you want the new stem to grow. By using this trick you can control your roses and shape them the way you want.

- Miniature and standard roses should be pruned the same way as their parents. Climbers should be left free to grow, untouched, for the first three years. When they're mature, thin them by pruning to remove dead or damaged canes and old canes on spring bloomers. Prune the remaining branches back to two or three buds. Ramblers should be pruned only after they flower by cutting back branches that have flowered and have no new growth. When cutting back dead canes look for a white center. This means you've reached a healthy spot.
 

- Always wear gloves so you don't snag your skin on those thorns. Arm protection is also available and remember to dress in clothing that won't catch. Now breathe in the scent of freshly cut roses!