Now’s the Time to Plant Roses

 

Roses are beautiful flowering shrubs, filling the landscape with their stunning color and unique fragrance. Available in a variety of colors, fragrances and repeat flowering or single blooms, there is a rose variety for every garden. 

Provided with the right culture, roses are no more difficult to care for than other flowering shrubs. Start with the basics. Roses need a minimum of six hours of full sun to grow and bloom properly. Roses need a bed of their own, away from trees, shrubs and perennials that compete for sunlight, space and nutrients. Roses need space. They don’t do well when crowded together.   

Roses need well-amended soils to establish strong root systems and achieve vigorous growth and bloom potential. For the best results, use organic material that is produced locally, such as Earth Essentials Sheep, Peat and Compost or Nature’s Yield Compost. These products are formulated to work in our clay soils.  

 

When it comes to roots systems, roses are available in two types: own-root and grafted.  Each type requires a slightly different planting technique. For own-root roses, prepare the planting hole just as deep as the pot and twice as wide. For grafted roses, dig a hole 2” to 3” deeper than the bud union line and twice as wide. This is to allow room to bury the bud union 2” to 3” below the soil line. Once the planting hole is dug, fill it with water and observe how long it takes to drain. If it takes more than five minutes, add more organic material.

Next, add one to two tablespoons of Big Foot Mycorrhiza or Happy Frog Steamed Bone Meal to the planting hole and work it in. The mycorrhizae in these products will encourage strong root development. Remove the rose from its pot, center it in the hole and back fill with amended soil, using enough to create a shallow basin to facilitate watering. Deep water your new roses 2-3 times a week during their first year. 

 

With these factors in mind, selecting a rose bush becomes a question of purpose. Are you looking to augment your current rose collection; start a rose garden; replace a lost or damaged rose bush; add color and fragrance to your garden; build support for local pollinators? There is a rose variety that will fill some, if not all these goals including hybrid teas, floribundas, grandifloras, climbers, shrubs and even tree roses. 

When we think of roses, it’s the hybrid tea variety that most often comes to mind. Hybrid tea roses represent an amazing pallet of color and fragrance, such as the rose pictured here: Chris Evert.  Depend on hybrid tea roses to bloom consistently throughout the summer season.

Grandiflora roses are very similar to hybrid teas. They tend to be taller and bloom in clusters rather than one rose per stem. Like all roses, grandifloras will attract pollinators. This is Strike it Rich.

Floribunda roses such as Hot Cocoa, are valued for their ability to bloom continuously.

If you want to cover an arbor or trellis, choose a climbing rose. The Fourth of July is an excellent choice.  

Thanks to the knowledge, experience and expertise of The Flower Bin Perennials Manager Billie Jo, all our roses are well-established and, following a brief acclimation period, ready to plant. With their beautiful color and pleasant scent, roses can transform a garden and we’re here to help you make it happen.  

For a list of roses available for this year visit our webpage:   

rose2023.pdf (theflowerbin.net)