When the fall comes so do the roses, we are lucky to be in such a climate that allows us to plant roses twice a year. Planting your roses in the fall time gives them time to establish strong roots prior to our mild winters and still gives you time to enjoy their beautiful blooms and fragrance. Many people think roses are difficult to grow but with a little knowledge you will be amazed at just how simple it really is.
Roses need three essential things to grow, bloom and be happy in your garden; water, food, and adequate sunlight. Picking an area in your yard that is right for roses is where you want to start, contrary to popular belief roses will grow in full sun, especially the roses purchased from Moon Valley Nursery. However roses should not be planted against a radiant wall that will be letting off a lot of heat, they do best planted away from a wall in well mulched soil. Doing this retains moisture in the soil and allows the water to cool the roots throughout the warm days and hot summer months. When planting roses be sure to give them enough room to grow and to allow light and air circulation around the bush. Planting roses to close together will make for “woody” rose stems (having foliage only at the tops of the growth due to lack of air and sunlight to the inner growth) and breed fungi.
Other fungal problems will occur as a result of the rose bushes being planted to close together as well. Powdery mildew is a common problem that rose lover’s battle every season. To combat this problem never top water your roses or to water in the evening; a little rhyme to remember is; “watering when it’s dark and cold is a sure way to breed mold”. Giving them adequate space allows for air movement and will also stop the mold from growing.
Watering roses is pretty simple we touched on this a little bit in the last paragraph. Never water the tops or at night; remember the rhyme, and always water deeply. Roses like to be saturated and then allowed to dry completely before the next watering. According to the Arizona Nursery Association roses should be watered to a depth of at least 12 inches each watering. This allows for deep strong roots and will help the blooming process as well.
The last of the three things is food, in order to bloom vigorously, keep healthy foliage and roots you have to feed your roses. Using a food that has Phosphorus is what you are looking for; an all-purpose fertilizer like the Organic Blend Moon Dust (16-8-4) is perfect for our desert soil and for your roses. It contains enough Nitrogen for healthy foliage and has a good amount of Phosphorus to promote root growth and blooming, and you should fertilize your rose once a month.
The one thing people always seem to dread or cannot seem to figure out his how to properly trim roses. Properly trimmed roses will bloom more and grow better. Trimming should be done regularly on roses not just in the winter time. Dead heading your roses means taking off the spent blooms as they come. This allows the bush to use its energy to produce more flowers. Properly dead heading your roses is done by starting at the flower and going down the stem to the first leaflet with 5 leaves, make a slanted cut there and repeat for all spent blooms. When trimming down your rose bush in the winter you want to make sure to trim your main stems; you will generally have 2 or more main stems. After you make your angled cut on your main stems it is also important that you use pruning sealer on the wound to stop diseases, insects, and bacteria from going inside the open cut.
These are the basics of what you need to know if order to grow great roses in your garden. While roses may be a little more work than your Lantana the end product is well worth your effort and what a more relaxing way to spend a couple of hours than stopping to smell the roses.