Some Thoughts On Planting Roses

Although all kinds of gardening is my passion in life, nothing but nothing gives me greater pleasure than my beautiful rose garden. They are just so stunning, and I do really love the colors and the amazing varieties which are available.
To get the best from your rose garden however there are quite a few important pointers to bear in mind, and I would like to share some of these with you.
When the spring comes and the ground is thawed it is time to start planting your rose garden. Roses have actually been a cherished aphrodisiac since biblical times, and have been around for over 3000 years. Despite this, they still hold a particular mystery and fascination, not to mention the fact that they look and smell fantastic.
One of the most important rules of growing roses is to plant the rose bush in an area that receives around 4 to 6 hours of sunlight every day. It is also advisable not to plant too many trees or other plants around the rose bush, because many of these are likely to either mix with the rose or stifle it's growth. If you are replacing an old rose bush, approximately 1-1/2 cubic feet of old soil should be removed, and fresh soil added to replace it. When positioning your rose in the garden or landscape, make sure that you consider the growth characteristics of the rose in question.
To give you an example, place climbers and ramblers along fences, trellises, or next to arches or pergolas. This location offers them unrestricted growth and greatly increases the potential for some superb looking blooms.
Roses also look really beautiful in island beds mixed in with perennials, and miniature roses make great edging plants in front of the taller varieties. If you plant them singly, shrub roses can make excellent specimen plants, or they can be clustered to make a flowering hedge. You can also use them to camouflage unsightly parts of your garden.
Dig a hole large enough for the root mass, and loosen the bottom of the hole. I suggest that you should also add some bone meal which is a slow acting source of phosphorus. This leads to healthy root growth in the rose plant.
The plant should then be placed in the hole very carefully and the hole refilled with soil, making sure that the roots are properly covered. Water the rose plant well, and let it absorb the water before applying the final covering of soil. When this has been completed, water the plant some more and create a mound of soil about 6 inches high. The dome will keep the stems from drying out until the plant is rooted. Gradually remove the excess soil as the leaves start to open.
Special care should be taken with the planting depth, which varies considerably according to the climate you live in.
If you live in a colder area, plant a bit deeper and consult with other people growing roses in your area. If you are buying potted roses, you should plant them about 1 inch deeper than their potted level. The best time to plant roses varies depending on the winter temperature.
Where temperatures don't drop below -10 degrees F in either fall or spring, planting is satisfactory. If you live in an area where winter temperatures drop below -10 degrees F, spring planting is preferable. Plants should be planted in a dormant condition if purchased bare root, but container grown plants may be planted throughout the growing season.
Spacing of the rose plant is highly influenced by the temperature. In regions where winters are severe, the rose plant does not grow so large as when in mild climates. Taking this into consideration, hybrid tea roses should be spaced 1-1/2 to 3 feet apart, but large vigorous growers such as hybrid perpetuals will need 3 to 5 feet of space, while the climbers need from 8 to 10 feet of space.
If the winter temperature is below 10 degrees F, roses can grow healthily if proper care is taken, so the gardener must be prepared to endure that cold and probably wet experience. In colder areas, roses enjoy their last fertilization of the season by August 15th or thereabouts

Tips on dealing with the most common rose health problems

Black Spots On Leaves

This disease is commonly known as black spot. Black spots appear as circular with fringed edges on the leaves, and they cause them to yellow. The solution is to remove the infected foliage and pick up any fallen leaves around the rose. Artificial sprays can be used to prevent or treat this kind of rose disease.

Stunted Or Malformed Young Canes

Known as powdery mildew, this is a fungal disease that covers leaves stems and buds with wind spread white powder. It makes the leaves curl and turn purple. Spray with Funginex or Benomyl to treat this particular disease which could totally ruin your rose garden.

Blistered Underside Of Leaves

A disease of roses known as rust, it is characterized with orange-red blisters that turn black in fall. In spring it will attack the new sprouts, and this disease can even survive the winter. What you should do is to collect and discard leaves that are infected in fall, and also spraying Benomyl and Funginex every 7-10 days will help.

Malformed Or Stunted Leaves And Flowers

The one most likely cause of this is the presence of spider mites. These are tiny yellow red or green spiders which cling to the underside of the leaves. They will suck the juices from the leaves, but the application of Orthene or Isotox may help in treating this infestation.
Weak And Mottled Leaves Showing Tiny White Webs Underneath

This might be caused by aphids, which are small soft-bodied insects which are usually brown green or red. Often found clustered under leaves and flower buds, they suck plant juices from tender buds. However Malathion or Diazinon spray may help roses to survive these bugs.

Flowers That Do Not Open Or Are Deformed When They Do Open

Thrips could be the reason behind this deformation and unopened flowers, which is characterized with slender brown-yellow bugs with fringed wings thriving in the flower buds. They will also suck the juices from the flower buds, so therefore you should cut and discard all infested flowers. Using Orthene and Malathion will also treat this health problem with your roses.

Roses for your garden

Having been fairly disrespectful of modern roses as garden plants thus far, I do embracetheir value as cut flowers. The Hybrid Tea roses we grow in our gardens tend to havebetter fragrance than their greenhouse counterparts and will occasionally producemore than one rose per stem, making them look more casual. Let me recommend afew English, Hybrid Tea, and Floribunda (cluster-flowered) roses for cutting:

‘Betty Prior’: (Floribunda) Single row of petals, bright pink.‘Chrysler Imperial’: (Hybrid Tea) Elegant big red flowers, handsome buds.

‘Double Delight’: (Hybrid Tea) Part of the delight in question is the fragrance.White flowers lightly or heavily tipped in red, red tints expanding as the floweropens.

‘Europeana’: (Floribunda) Neon red—screaming.

‘Fair Bianca’: (English) Fully double, fresh whipping cream color. Deep muskyfragrance.

‘Granada’: (Floribunda) The color of a tequila sunrise and full complex perfume.

‘New Dawn’: (Climber, Hybrid Tea) Silvered pink oval buds, produced in masses.

‘Prairie Moon’: (Hybrid Tea—Griffith Buck) Ultra winter hardy, fifty petals of buttercreamyellow.

‘Prospero’: (English) Fully double, dark purple flowers, strong fruity fragrance.Glory in a blossom.

‘Sheer Bliss’: (Hybrid Tea) Refined flower, cream touched by varying degrees ofpink, lovely fragrance. Exquisite buds.

‘Sunsprite’: (Floribunda) Ruffled, cheerful bright yellow flower, lemon notes in thescent.

‘The Pilgrim’: (English) Dense, fully double flower, strong but not strident yellow,good fragrance.

Ravishing roses

Whether you grow modern Hybrid Tea roses or old garden roses, you will want toget the best out of them when you harvest for the house, and in addition to all of theirfoibles as garden plants, roses have very specific needs when they become cut flowers.Rose addicts generally fall into two camps: those who love the barely opening budand those, like me, who swoon at the feet of a fully double, completely open blossom.Both styles have special requirements for their handling.The roses arriving from florists are generally greenhouse types that would notsurvive long in gardens colder than zones 8 to 9. Even in the balmier regions ofCalifornia these roses are grown under glass to completely control their environment—after all, this is a cash crop. It is hard for U.S. rose growers to compete withgrowers in South America. Roses love light, and at the right elevations at the equator,the flowers of a cultivar like the red rose ‘Forever Yours’ will have gigantic flowersatop stems like Louisville Sluggers. Aside from the politics and environmental considerationssurrounding imported flowers, one cannot deny the amazing size of Southand Central American roses.Here are a few of the greenhouse rose varieties I know to be remarkable:‘Black Baccara’: This is as close as the breeders have come yet to a naturally blackrose. The outer guard petals are deeply dark, but as the blossom unfurls, itreveals interior petals more burgundy red. I once did a stunning bridal bouquetfor a young woman in love with red, including open blossoms of ‘Black Baccara’,‘Charlotte’, and ‘Opium’ roses, and the blended shades of red were divine, as allhad the same dull sheen of old velvet.‘Blue Bird’: Rich lavender in color, this is a much improved version of good old‘Sterling Silver’, which, after all these years, is still grown by a few Californiagrowers. The lavender roses tend to have a fulfilling fragrance. Unfortunately, forgenerations lavender roses have been known to attract mildew diseases, both inthe greenhouse and the garden. More than fifty petals.‘Charlotte’: If you want a truly red rose, ‘Charlotte’ is hard to beat. Mild fragrance,but a satiny sheen to the opening interior surface of the petals loads these flowerswith drama. This is a rose blossom that does not get huge, which can be a goodthing. The bigger the bud, the higher the price.‘Cool Water’: Another improved lavender rose, this one has paler color than ‘BlueBird’, and very round buds. The color is highly affected by climate, and youwould not know that a stem of this cultivar grown in Oregon was the same as astem from Ecuador.‘Katrina’: If you like pink roses, this is one to special order. ‘Katrina’ has longelegant buds of creamy pink, with the color intensifying at the petal edges. Thisis a long blossom, and slow to open.‘Opium’: The shape of this rose is boxy rather than elongated, which is an indicatorboth that the open petals will be slightly ruffled at their edges and that there willbe many of them. ‘Opium’ is a rich dark shade of red, striking the middle groundbetween true red ‘Charlotte’ and dark ‘Black Baccara’.‘Sahara’: This rose is the color of sand, beige and cream and even slightly peachy,and exquisite. The flowers unfurl from the tips outward, revealing a stronglyspiraled center. The blossom opens fairly quickly but will hold itself at perfectmaturity for at least a week. Thick, old rose fragrance. If I were getting marriedagain tomorrow, this is the rose I would have, combined with ‘Queen of theNight’ tulips. Oh, yummy.‘Skyline’: This is my favorite yellow cut rose. The color is buttery and soft. ‘Skyline’has lots of petals and stays beautifully in the plump bud stage for several daysbefore opening. Light fragrance.