When it comes to planting roses, as long as you follow a few simple guidelines, you really shouldn’t have too many problems.
At this point, if your rose is bare-rooted, it can be left to stand in a bucket of warm water for 30 minutes or more simply to hydrate it ready for planting. Never let the roots dry out!
If you consider that your new rose is going to be in its planted position for a lifetime, giving you upwards of 20+ years of pleasure, from its flowers and perfume, its location will be of the utmost importance. To start with, your rose will need at least 6 hours of direct unfiltered, daylight every day that means no heavy shade.
Once you’ve selected a spot that meets this requirement, the next thing is your soil. This is where sound preparation comes in. Devote the time required to soil preparation and you’ll give your new plant the start in life it deserves. Roses can be grown in most garden soils successfully as long as you’re prepared to put in the effort to remedy any potential shortcomings. Although roses prefer a heavier soil, they don’t like too much clay, they don’t like too much sand either, and as for a chalky soil, they won’t like that at all.
Should you find that your soil is either too sandy or it has too much clay, the remedy is the same for both, dig in plenty of farmyard manure or plenty of rotted garden compost. If neither of these is readily available, a loam type compost can be purchased from your local garden shop and this can then be dug in. Roses are quite sensitive to the pH value of your soil.
A simple-to-use, soil analysis kit, is available from your local garden center, and this will show you the acidity of your soil. Roses are not going to be happy in soil that is too acidic or too alkaline. Ideally the pH should be between 6.0 and 6.9. To increase the pH by 1.0 point, to make the soil more alkaline, you can dig in hydrated lime at these following rates:
• 4oz per square yard to sandy soils.
• 8oz per square yard to loamy soils.
• 12oz per square yard to clay soils.
• 24oz per square yard peaty soils.
To lower the pH by 1.0 point, to make your soils more acidic, you can mix ground rock sulfur at these following rates:
• 1.2oz per square yard to sandy soils.
• 3.6oz per square yard to loamy soils.
• 3.6oz per square yard to clay soils.
• 3.6oz per square yard peaty soils.
Now you’ve selected your planting site, made sure it has enough daylight and you you’ve achieved the correct pH balance for your roses, the next step is to prepare the site ready to accept the rose. This means digging a hole. Dig a hole at least 20 inches in diameter and make it about 14 inches deep. Using a garden fork, break up the soil at the bottom of the hole even further, as this will allow the feeder roots to penetrate more easily. Place some garden compost in the bottom of the hole and add a sprinkling of bone meal to this as it’s an excellent source of phosphorus to encourage healthy rooting.
If planting a bare-rooted rose bush, spread the roots around the bottom of the hole and start to refill it, making sure that the soil settles around them. (You don’t want to leave any air pockets because the roots won’t be able to feed). If planting container grown roses, the hole doesn’t need to be quite so big, but still allow a 3 inch gap between the root ball and the sides of the hole.
Water the roots before you cover them with the last couple of inches of soil, and finally, return the last of the soil to the hole. Firm the soil around the plant with the heel of your foot and then give the rose a good soaking with the hose pipe for 10 minutes or so.
That’s all there is to it, simply keep an eye on your new rose to make sure that it’s not drying out in the sun or wind.
Keith Berwick is a rose growing enthusiast who has been growing roses both professionally and for pleasure for over 40 years and enjoys helping others to get started in this rewarding hobby. For more great information on rose planting, visit www.rosecaretoptips.com
Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Gardening Articles Via RSS!
