The time has come for planting roses!

Most nurseries have received the bulk of this year’s rose order, and some will be getting more as we get further into the season.  This last week, we visited one of our favorite nurseries, Flower World, and purchased some fine quality roses.  Besides having many quality plants, Flower World also carries one of the largest selections of “Weeks” brand roses.  From our experience, Weeks roses are of the finest quality and have performed very well.

After choosing your favorite color, preferred stem length and petal count, you’ll need to plant.  Plant your newfound rose factory in a sunny location with well draining soil.  We prefer to plant in a sandy loam type soil and add some compost or composted cow manure to the mix.

Some of our friendly old-timer rose enthusiasts swear by some strange methods to coax out the finest blossoms of the season.  Although we’ve not used all of these and don’t guarantee any results, you might do a little experimenting of your own.  These include:

• 1 teaspoon dish soap to 1 quart water for spraying aphids;
• leftover tea and used tea leaves turned into the soil to improve the soil;
• used coffee grounds around the root area is supposed to improve beneficial soil microorganisms;
• we have heard, but do not recommend, chicken manure because of the high nitrogen content and often, chicken manure is hot and can cause root damage near the surface.

Maintaining your rose

This takes a little regular attention to pests and some good maintenance practice in the way of pruning and watering.  When you see aphids crawling all over your future blossom, pick them off or spray them with a rose friendly but aphid not so friendly spray.  When you see little black spots on the leaves, remove those leaves and treat your rose with the proper spray to inhibit the spread of black spot.  A great way to prevent black spot is planting in a sunny location with good, but not strong, airflow.  Planting against a wall or solid fence/structure is not recommended in most cases.  When airflow is restricted and slows, the black spot spores tend to settle and can take a lot of work to get rid of.  Another good practice is to thin out the center inside your rose bush.  Allowing airflow through the center and additional light reduces several problems, including black spot.

Prune out dead canes in the spring and keep the ground beneath your garden flower shop free of debris.  When dead canes are left from year to year and debris accumulates, these are breeding grounds for disease and pests.

Fertilize your rose with a good rose fertilizer found at your local nursery or Home Depot/Lowes.  Do not simply throw lawn fertilizer on your roses.  This high nitrogen fertilizer will greatly increase the growth of the stems and reduce good rose production.  Roses need a low nitrogen fertilizer with iron and potash or phosphorus.  Good rose fertilizers will be marked as such.

Whether you are purchasing a rose named for your favorite president, movie star, or just for their beauty, every moment should be enjoyable.  With proper care, your future garden flower shop will produce to your pleasure and amaze your friends.

Great tips for March:

• Schedule your spring window cleaning and gutter cleaning.
• Fertilize most plants mid Feb.-March with a balanced fertilizer such as 16-16-16.
• Apply Lime on turf areas to help balance soil pH.
• Remove dead rose and raspberry canes, tie this year’s raspberry canes.
• Divide dahlia and daylily tubers throughout march and prepare planting area.
• Remove 1-2 old trunks from bush type lilacs.
• Keep ahead of the weeds now so you don’t fight them all summer.

In addition to our landscape maintenance, flower displays, and window cleaning, we will be promoting our container herb, vegetable, and fruit farming. Over the past two years many of our clients and their friends have asked that we plant Herbs, Vegetables, and Fruits in small container gardens. Through much study, trial and error the result is a bountiful harvest of homegrown healthy foods. Over the coming months we plant to update our blog and our website with pictures of these modern day farmers and their crops.

From Every One at Sure Lawn,

Thank you for your Patronage!

Tags: aphids, black spot, roses

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 20th, 2010 at 4:05 pm and is filed under Flowers, Plant of the week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.