Add season long color from the ground up with roses.

Newer easy care varieties are available in a variety of sizes and shapes and perfect for any size garden. Just match the rose to the space and your landscape design. With proper selection and care you can enjoy years of beauty.

Plant them in the Right Location

• Roses thrive in full sun locations
  • Pick a spot that receives at least 6 hours of direct sunlight
  • Morning sun helps leaves dry quickly reducing the risk of disease
  • For shadier Spots

• Roses with fewer petals are usually more shade tolerant
• Once blooming roses tend to be more shade tolerant
• Try one or two first before filling the bed with roses

• Roses prefer rich well-drained soils
  • Work several inches of compost into the top 12” of soil if needed
    • Amend the whole planting bed, not just the planting hole
• Check the tag and leave sufficient space for them to reach their mature size

Selecting the Best Rose for You

• Hybrid Teas
  • Most well known and very popular among gardeners
  • Large blooms growing on long stems – perfect for cutting
  • Several bloom and rest cycles throughout the season
  • 3 to 5 feet tall
  • Plant in a rose garden, mixed border, flowerbed or large container
• Floribunda
  • Smaller flowers in large clusters for big impact on the plant
  • Known for the massive long lasting floral displays
  • Tends to bloom continually throughout the summer
  • 3 to 4’ tall
  • Plant individuals as specimen or mass in flowerbeds and shrub borders
• Groundcover
  • Low growing spreading roses
  • Hardy and require minimal maintenance
  • Less than 2 feet tall
  • Use to blanket a slope, cascade over a retaining wall or spill over the lip of a container
• Landscape/Shrub Roses
  • Upright spreading
  • Hardy, low maintenance
  • One time and Repeat blooming varieties available
  • Knockout series & Easy Elegance well known in this group
  • Great in mixed borders, as hedges and mass plantings
• Climber
  • Upright 6 feet or taller
  • Once and repeat blooming varieties
  • Most bloom on older canes
  • Train on fence, trellis or wall

Provide Proper Care

• Planting
  • The crown (place where the stems join the roots) should be even with the soil surface
  • The graft (knobby growth between roots and stems) on grafted roses should be planted several inches below the soil surface
• Watering
  • New plantings -
    • water thoroughly and often enough to keep the soil slightly moist
  • Established plants
    • water thoroughly when the top few inches of soil are crumbly and starting to dry
  • Avoid overhead watering that increases the risk of disease
• Mulch the soil surface with shredded bark, leaves or evergreen needles.
  • Conserves moisture
  • Suppresses weeds
  • Organic mulches improve the soil as they decompose
• Fertilization
  • Healthy soil means less fertilizer is needed
  • Take a Soil Test to help determine the amount & kind of fertilizer needed
  • Check the label and fertilize according to the type of rose
    • Hybrid teas
      • First application after new growth has developed
      • Reapply every 5 to 6 weeks
      • Stop fertilizing by August 1^st to avoid winter injury
    • Shrub and Climbing roses
      • One application in spring as buds swell
• Deadheading
  • Single flowered roses
    • prune the stem back to first 5 leaflet leaf
  • Flowers in Clusters
    • Remove individual flowers within the cluster as they fade
    • Once all flowers in the cluster have faded, prune the stem back to first 5 leaflet leaf

• Cutting
  • Harvest early in the morning when possible
    • Make cut above the first 5 leaflet leaf
    • Or three leaflet leaf on younger plants
    • Place in water as soon as possible for longest vase life 

Written by gardening expert, Melinda Myers. Melinda Myers is a nationally recognized gardening expert with more than 30 years of horticulture experience. She is a wealth of knowledge and we are pleased to share Melinda’s Gardening How-To with you!

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