How To Grow a Rose in Your Home Garden

Learning How to Plant and Care for Roses

Planting roses really is a rewarding project that will brighten up your yard and supply beautiful green foliage and blossoms for many years. It takes a little planning and thought to find an ideal location for the home rose. Once you choose where you want them in the yard, the digging and soil preparation goes fairly quickly. Overall, a home rose requires minimal care once plants are established. Get your roses off to a good start by learning how to plant and care for roses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 1

Select a good growing location for a home rose. Many people with little experience in growing roses have a tendency to dig a hole anywhere in their yard where they want to see a rose bush growing. However, planting a home rose in any spot without considering growing conditions is a mistake. The best places for planting roses are where they will get at least six hours of morning sun and good water drainage. Avoid planting in southern exposures with too much afternoon sun.

Step 2

After selecting a suitable location for a home rose, prepare the area and soil for planting. Clear the area of sticks, rocks, weeds and pull out grass. Soak bare root roses for a couple of hours in a bucket of water before planting. Dig a hole about two feet deep and two feet around.

Before placing the home rose in the hole, you need to check out the soil structure and add amendments for improving soil structure if necessary. If the soil is too sandy or contains too much clay, you should add organic materials to the soil. You can improve the soil by adding compost, cow manure, lawn trimmings or leaves. Adding a little crushed limestone is often advisable to increase the pH levels for more acidic soil, which roses prefer.

Mix all the soil amendments into the soil and plant the home rose according to planting instructions on the package. Water well after planting and provide weekly watering.

Step 3

Let the home rose adjust to its new hole for a couple of weeks and then fertilize. Blood meal can be spread over the surface of the soil to provide nitrogen naturally. Nitrogen, potassium and calcium can be added as a supplement from bone meal. Organic fertilizers slowly release nutrients throughout growing seasons. Or you can apply liquid fertilizers every three weeks.

Step 4

Take the necessary steps to protect roses from hard freezes if that is a problem in your region. If temperatures do no drop below 20 degrees, you probably do not need to protect a home rose. If protection is needed, mound soil up around the stem base several inches thick. For temporary cold freezes wrap the upper portions of the plant in burlap.

Step 5

Prevent insect infestation using precautions and spraying if needed. The most common source of insects are aphids that can easily get out of hand. Use a garden hose and spray off as many aphids as possible. Purchase ladybugs at garden centers and put them on the leaves of rose bushes. Ladybugs thrive on aphids and can resolve aphid infestations quickly. In some cases, you may need to spray a good insecticide on rose bushes.

Tips

Hosing down the foliage of a home rose once a week is a good preventive measure for controlling the spread of aphids. Foliage and rose blossoms can be encouraged by giving a home rose more nitrogen to increase foliage or additional phosphorous to produce more blooms.

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