Planting Roses In Your Garden
by Lee Dobbins
Roses are an old standby for any garden and one of the worlds favorite
flowers. There are over 5,000 varieties of roses in the United States
and they can be used to enhance your garden in many ways — as
creepers, shrubs, vines, climbers, hedges or just as beds of pure color.
When picking out roses for your garden, it is important to get healthy
plants. Make sure the stems are green and not shriveled and the roots
are moist and partly fibrous. The most expensive rose is not always
the best rose; it may be only a newcomer, much discussed and,
therefore, a favorite.
In general, there are two types of roses: bush roses and climbers.
Bush roses are shrub like and climbers produce canes that require some
sort of support. The most commonly planted type of bush rose is the
hybrid tea rose. Other types of bush roses include polyanthas (roses
in large clusters), the fioribundas (large-flowered polyanthas), and
the hybrid perpetuals (vigorous growers with a great crop in June and
continuous blooming throughout the summer).
The climbers include ramblers, whose long pliant canes have large
clusters of small roses that can be used for covering walls, fences
and banks. The climbers also are pillar roses, adapted to growing near
buildings and on posts and the climbing hybrid tree.
If you are contemplating planting roses in your garden, make sure you
pick out the proper spot and prepare the soil appropriately. You
should use garden loam with organic matter that contains peat moss,
leaf mould, compost, rotted or commercial manure. Prepare the soil in
the rose beds well before in order to allow for settling of the soil.
You can plant roses in fall or spring, but fall is actually best. When
planting roses, inspect the roots to make sure they have not dried and
if they have make sure you soak them before planting. Trim back any
roots that are weak, long or broken.
Set the plant in a hole that is large enough so that the roots can
spread. The part of the plant where the top attaches to the roots
(called the bud) should be just under the surface of the ground.
Plants should be spaced 18 apart. Prune the branches back to about 8
from the soil.
To grow good roses it is necessary to cultivate, to prune and to
spray. If you have a well-cultivated bed you need not worry about
watering. But if you start to water in hot weather, you must keep it
up, soaking the roots thoroughly about once a week.
Spraying every 10 days guards against the diseases and insects that
attack roses. Nicotine sulphate wipes out the green lice; arsenate of
lead is used against chewing insects; or sulphur and arsenate of lead
may be used in a dust, as may DDT dust.
When winter approaches, protect your roses by piling sod or straw
mulch around them. If you have climbing roses, remove the supports and
place the canes on the ground, peg them, and cover with soil mounds.
Author
Lee Dobbins writes for http://www.backyard-garden-and-patio.com where
you can find out more about gardening. Visit http://www.backyard-garden-and-patio.com/garden-flowers.html
to find out more about garden flowers.
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