B's Garden Buzz-'Roses'

     Roses have come a long way with many new varieties that don’t require the extra maintenance often associated with rose care.  These varieties include the Knock Out series, ‘Living Easy’, ‘Easy Going’ and my favorite, ‘Hot Cocoa’.   If you want the classic rose scent and full petal beauty, you may want to try a hybrid tea, grandiflora, or David Austin variety.  When given the conditions they prefer, maintenance becomes easier.  To start they need six to eight hours of sun with four of those hours falling between ten am. and two pm.  Then a rich, organic, well drained soil that is close to neutral ph.  When planting a new rose bush I incorporate good compost, like Coast of Maine’s Lobster Compost, into the hole and a two inch layer of compost on top once the plant is in.  They like a deep soak once a week if less than an inch of rain has fallen.

     For established roses my start up routine is as follows:

Choose three to five healthy, well spaced canes the diameter of your pinky. With sharp, clean pruners, prune down to about twelve inches (or until you reach healthy growth) just above an outward facing bud.  Remove any inward facing, spindly or dead branches.  Cover the fresh cuts with exterior wood glue to create a barrier to the rose cane borer.

Clean away any leaves and the top layer of last year’s mulch.  Spread one cup of lime and one cup of slow release organic fertilizer ( I use Rose-tone by Espoma) for each shrub and scratch into the soil.  Cover with two inches of new compost.  If you like you can put an inch of decorative mulch on top of the compost.  

When the shrubs have fully leafed out I will start a weekly preventative spray of 3T all season horticulture oil and 2T of baking soda per gallon of water.  Be sure to coat the top and undersides of all the leaves.  This usually is enough, along with proper watering techniques, to keep disease at bay.  If you have had black spot in the past, it is very important to keep the ground clean of debris, as that is where it starts.

I usually don’t have major insect problems because I encourage beneficial insects to come and do the job for me.  It is important to identify the insect on your plant.  It may just be one of the good guys coming to keep things in balance.

      Once the initial care is done I wait for the beautiful flowers to come in June!

     On another note, after dropping off some soil samples at the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station in New Haven, I went to the Plant Disease department to ask about a problem I had last summer and wanted to prevent this year.  They were very helpful and took as much time as was needed to answer all my questions.  While I was there another man came in to ask about a weed that was growing in his lawn.  He had his questions answered and was given info sheets to solve the problem.  I can’t say enough about what a useful resource the CAES is for Connecticut residents.  Don’t hesitate to use this service.  It is one of the reasons why it exists.