Spring Rose Care - The Easy Way:

Spring rose care will help get your roses off to a m enjoyable oming season. Modern roses are the longest oming of all shrubs. Many varieties start flowering in mid-late ing, h recurrent om cycles thgh late fall. Unl you are looking to grow absolutely perfect ssoms for competitive exhibin, roses actually require much l work n you may usually read about. Carefully chosen varieties of shrub roses will - h no summer aying - yield a full season's bounty of oms.

Spring Rose Care - Timing

Spring rose care uld be accomplished after winterkill (if any) has become apparent, but bef the new leaves unfurl. Te are several ways to figure this. I've fo it is most succful to work on the roses just as the Forsythia starts to om, rat n slavishly following the calendar.

Spring Rose Care - Feeding

If you hilled-up your roses h mulch last fall, the first thing you need to do is to tear down the mulch mos and ead it and the roses so t the total mulch depth never exceeds 1 � . If you have m, remove the top layer. The first ing rose care fertilizan consists of four different products, a dful of each uld be inkled and the plant in a circle, about 12-18 out from the stem: Espoma Rose-Tone�, Espoma Kelp Meal�, Espoma Epson Plus and Greensand (Five addinal feedings, a month apart, consist of just one dful of Rose-Tone�--nothing else Never feed after September 1st; late feeding encourages late emergence of tender growth, which will be winterkilled). Use 1/3 to 1/2 as much of all products, at all times, on miniature roses.

Spring Rose Care - Prug

Prug is usually considered to be the most time-consuming of all rose care tasks. Recently, a research study compared 2 beds of the same Floriba roses. One bed was d pru by skilled rose growers. The ot was pru h a combinan of a power hedge trimmer and a lawn mower raised up on huge wheels. Thghout the season, the two gps were compared for flower producn. Gu which plot did the best. Hint: it wasn't the d pru plot. Carefully chosen roses are much toug and m forgiving then most people realize.
At any rate, ing rose care prug is not difficult if you keep the following points in mind:

You will need five good tools: sharp by-pass pruners, by-pass loppers, small prug saw, elbow length (gauntlet) leat or rubber/plastic impregnated gloves, and safety goggles.

Over-prug roses in ing tends to weaken the plant. Never prune away m n one-third of the live growth.

On all roses, remove diseased, dead and broken canes. A cane t has blacke from winterkill, or suffered physical damage, uld be rte to an h below the offending secn.

We possible, cut on a 45 degree angle.

Once-oming (as opposed to recurrent-oming) roses require no furt prug in the ing. Te are primarily antique roses and old-fashed ramblers. Do whatever addinal prug necary after oming in early July.

Reduce hybrid tea roses to 4-5 vigos canes not rter n 30 . Grandifloras uld be reduced to 5-6 canes not rter n 36 . Reduce floribas to 7 to 8 canes not rter n 24 . In general, try to achieve a vase-shaped plant for most roses in te categories.

Especially on hybrid teas and grandifloras, cut 1/4 h above an outward facing bud. Cut so the 45 degree angle allows water to drain away from, rat n into the bud.

Mini roses, shrub roses, rugosa roses and repeat oming antique roses just need a haircut, trimming them to size.

Treat English roses and romantica roses as grandifloras.

Trim modern climbing roses and pillar roses to shape. Aged canes uld be removed, as uld those t grow away from the support or criss-cross awkwardly. Massive rejuvenan prug is best postpo until early July and done, if at all, every 3 to 5 years.

To prevent cane br, put a dab of Nubark� Rose Stick on the cut wo of any cut bra greater n pencil thickn.

To discourage diseases and insects, rake up and discard all pru material, luding leaves, h the trash.

Spring Rose Care - Spraying

On roses t have been tbled by fungus diseases a ay of lime sulphur during ing rose care will kill the over-wintered sps of blackspot and mildew. Mixing the lime sulphur h horticultural oil will control a broader range of pests. To achieve full effectiven from the oil, this ay must be applied on a day when it is not going to freeze the following night. Spray the roses to the dripping point and ay all the surnding mulch. This ay must be applied when the roses are still dormant--bef they start to leaf out. During the next few days, top dr h enough mulch so t total coverage is 2 to 2 � . As roses leaf out, occasally they are tbled by green aphids on the tips. Te are easily controlled h insecticidal soap.