There's a tremendous reward in the form of brilliant blooms for those brave enough to undertake rose gardening. If you've had bad luck in the past, the good news is that new landscape varieties of climbing roses and rose bushes are much hardier and easier to grow. Choosing roses that suit your gardening skill and dedication is the best place to start, as the care of roses varies dramatically among different cultivars.
Rose Types
Hybrid tea roses are the blooms commonly found in florist shops. They are generally grafted onto a hardy rose root stock. They will require spraying, fertilizing and deadheading at regular intervals to grow and bloom. Hybrid tea roses come in a wide range of colors and sizes. Some are fragrant, and they generally bloom for most of the summer.
Grandifloras and floribunda roses have smaller blooms than tea roses, usually in clusters. The plants are more shrub-like and can be grown on their own roots or grafted. They range from very hardy to not so hardy. They require slightly less care than tea roses and bloom for much of the summer. Some varieties are fragrant.
Shrub roses generally bloom once, usually in early summer. The flowers are generally small, and the plants vary in hardiness. Some are very easy to care for, with great disease resistance, while others require more care.
Landscape roses are the new disease-resistant, hardy roses. They are generally easy to care for, bloom all summer and are great for beginning gardeners. The flowers are usually small and most lack fragrance. They come in a wide range of colors and sizes.
Climbing roses vary in hardiness and care requirements. Miniature roses are small replicas of other varieties and can be grown in containers or indoors. They are often surprisingly hardy in the garden.
Choosing Roses
Roses are sold as bare root stock in a dormant condition or as potted plants. Most roses sold from catalogs are bare root plants. You can get hundreds of varieties this way. Potted roses are generally sold in local stores and the selection will be more limited.
Bare root roses should be planted in early spring. Buy them as soon as the stores put them out and keep them in a cool, dark spot until ready to plant. Bare root rose canes should look green and firm, not black and shriveled. You do not want them to begin growing in storage. If sprouts begin, rub them off with your fingers.
Potted roses can be bought at any time of the year. If they are fully leaved and have blooms, be careful putting them outside if the temperature is still dropping below freezing at night. It's best to protect them each night and remove covers in the morning.
Planting Roses
Roses should be planted in full sun. Loosen the soil up to about 18 inches deep. Roses prefer slightly acidic, fertile soil that drains well. Some varieties will adapt fairly well to other conditions. You can work some organic matter into the soil before digging the hole. Do not add anything to the hole you dig for the rose, not even fertilizer.
When the danger of a hard freeze is past, dormant roses can be planted outside. Remove all the packing material and soak the roots for an hour or two before planting. If the rose is in a pot, remove any type of pot including paper or peat. Leave the soil on the roots of potted roses as much as possible. Make sure to remove all strings and ties.
Roses that are grafted will have a swelling on the stem where the graft was made. In areas where winter temperatures regularly dip below freezing, the graft union should be planted two inches below the ground. In warm zones the graft union should be at ground level.
Non-grafted roses should be planted at the same depth they were at in their pots. On bare root plants this will often show as a darker ring on the main stems. Refill holes with the soil that was taken out of them and water well. You can add some slow-release fertilizer to the soil around the rose or use a liquid fertilizer after planting.
Spacing for roses depends on the variety you're planting and your planting zone. In warmer zones roses will get larger and should be planted farther apart. Tea roses and smaller floribundas should be set about 30 inches apart. Shrub and landscape roses should be planted about half their expected adult width from each other.
Care of Roses
Keep roses watered if it is dry. Try to water them at the base of the plant and keep the foliage dry to help prevent disease. Mulching roses is a good way to maintain even soil moisture.
Roses that bloom only once should be fertilized in early spring as growth starts. Roses that bloom all summer should be fertilized in early spring, again when blooming starts and then about every six weeks. Stop fertilizing two months before your first frost is expected.
Newer varities of roses are more disease-resistant and won’t require spraying. Tea roses and some others almost always need a preventative spray program to prevent fungal disease. Roses may also need to be sprayed for insects.
Tea roses and older floribunda roses may need to have dead flowers removed if you want them to continue blooming. Newer landscape roses don’t require this. You can leave some flowers to produce rose hips later in the season for the birds and for winter interest.
Grafted roses will generally need some winter protection. You can use special rose cones or make a wire cage around the rose and fill it with straw or chopped leaves. Some gardeners also mound soil up over the base of the rose to about a foot deep. Don’t take the soil from around the rose roots to do this.
Regular pruning is required for roses to achieve the proper shape and to set as many blooms as possible, but don't prune late in the season. Roses die back from the tips and need their stems intact to prevent winter damage. Roses that bloom once can have dead stems removed once new growth begins. Pruning roses that bloom throughout the season will keep the plant growing and blooming well into autumn.
