Summer Rose Care

Roses provide beauty and grace to our gardens, as well as attract pollinators, but like any other plant in your landscape, roses get stressed by summer’s temperatures and dryness. You can help your roses stay healthy and blooming by keeping up with deadheading, watering properly, fertilizing and controlling disease and insects. Sounds like a lot, but if done on a regular basis, your roses will do well through out the summer season.

First of all, keep up with removing fading blooms. This is called deadheading and it’s important to do for two reasons. Pruning spent blooms keeps the rose bush neat and tidy. Removing fading flowers will prevent the rose plant from wasting energy producing hips and encourage more blooms.

Snip the old bloom just above an outward facing 5-leaf set. At this point in the season, you're like to find more 5-leaf sets than 3-leaf or 7-leaf sets.

Hard prune any dead or diseased canes to the ground. Seal the tops of the cane with Elmer’s glue to prevent further damage.  While you’re pruning, watch for indications of disease or insects.

Common rose diseases include black spot, rust or powdery mildew.

Insects to watch for this time of year include aphids, spider mites and thrip.

Diseases can be treated by removing any obviously bad leaves or with fungicides such as Sulfur or Serenade.

Insects can be managed with products such as Neem or Spinosad or a healthy dose of ladybugs. Fungicides and insecticides should be applied in the evening, when pollinators are absent and temperatures are cooler. Roses should be well hydrated prior spraying any pesticide. The best way to water roses is slowly and deeply, at the base of the plant. Watering overhead encourages disease problems.

Mid to late July is the time to feed your roses. Choose a fertilizer such as Mile-Hi Rose Food or Fertilome Rose and Flower Food. These organic fertilizers promote healthy soil, strong canes and vigorous blooming. Keeping your roses pruned, fed and hydrated is the best defense against bugs and fungus.

Finally, know don’t guess. What looks like a disease may actually be an insect or a nutrient deficiency. Bring us a sample of the problem you’re having. We’ll diagnosis it and come up with recommendations to solve your rose and plant issues.