Roses are probably the most loved and hated of all shrubs. Everyone wants roses, but not the problems that go along with them. Fortunately, there’s a class of roses that’s taking the gardening world by storm because they are maintenance free: Knockout shrub roses. Here at the nursery, we have a display garden of the ‘Knockout’ roses. We chose to use shrub roses in our display garden because we don’t have time to spray for diseases that the hybrid tea, floribunda, and grandiflora roses are plagued with. We have never sprayed them with any fungicides and their foliage is very clean and healthy. They start blooming heavily in April and will continue until a hard frost with no deadheading. Most years, they will still be blooming in mid-December.
Another new class of roses that have hit the scene are the Drift Roses. They perform like the Knockout Rose but are much more compact for smaller spaces. They are wonderful and you can check them out here.
You should prune your shrub roses hard in late February to early March, leaving about 8- 10” of canes, no matter how tall they are. This keeps the plants full and bushy from the ground up. Don’t worry; they’ll be full size again by summer.
It’s true that Japanese Beetles love roses but remember that with shrub roses, you get about 32 weeks of blooms and the Beetles are only around for about 6 weeks, 8 at the most. Sevin Dust works very well on Japanese Beetles and will actually repel them as long as it’s on the leaf. Systemic insecticides all work well to kill Japanese Beetles.
If you love the fragrance and large blooms of the hybrid teas,
you can be successful in growing them but you must make time
for the regular maintenance that they require. Spraying for
diseases and deadheading spent blooms are the two most
important tasks that you must perform on a weekly basis.
Spray for blackspot disease every 7-10 days as a preventative
maintenance even if you don’t see it on the leaves. Or use
the newer products with systemic fungicides, such as
Bayer Advanced 3 in 1 Rose Care. Modern hybrid roses also
need lots of organic matter added to the beds. They like
moisture but not “wet feet”. Topdress every year with compost
or aged manure to keep the soil around the rose loose and rich.
And don’t forget to add 2-3” of mulch every year. This keeps the
soil moist and the temperature around the roots cooler in the summer.
Good Healthy Soil Is An Ecosystem
Soil is more than just dirt. It is more than clay, silt, sand, and dead plant matter. It is a complex pile of fungi, bacteria, worms and other organisms working together in a continuously changing environment. What are they all doing? They are all eating and reproducing. The byproducts of this activity produce the nutrients that plants need to grow. The plants and their roots are an intimate part of this system. When you have a complete and healthy soil, all of these things are working together and the plants are performing at the peak of their abilities. Nine tenths of gardening is creating nutritious healthy soil. Give them the right home and the plants know what to do from there. Healthy soil will reduce plant fungus diseases and reduce insect infestations. Why? Because their predators will be present there as well. The Soil ecosystem has developed over hundreds of millions of years, and so you don't have to reinvent the wheel, you just have to help it along. We cannot stress enough how important it is to have good soil. Without it, roses will not perform at their best.
Adding Organic Materials And Soil Amendments
Almost all soils can benefit from the additon of more organic matter. If you are starting with an empty bed, now is the time that you can make a difference. Add as much composted (rotted) organic material as you can afford. It is almost impossible to add too much. We sell compost in bulk amounts that we can load on your truck with a tractor. Shovel the compost onto the beds and then dig it in with a shovel or better yet, a roto tiller. If you are amending the soil in the fall, you can add materials such as manure, grass clippings or leaves, because they will have all winter to rot into the composted material you want.
All roses are heavy feeders so apply a good quality, slow-release granular fertilizer around the base of each rose every 6-8 weeks. If your roses look lean with pale green leaves and few blooms, they’re probably hungry. Consistent fertilizing will keep the blooms coming. Good rose fertilizers have an NPK ratio of 1:2:1. More phosphorous leads to better blooming. Adding too much nitrogen will result in too much foliage and too few blooms. We use, sell and recommend a great granular fertilizer that is combined with a systemic insecticide. This product feeds the plant and kills pests in one easy step. We apply it in March, followed by another application in mid- summer.
Below is a recipe for disease and insect control that works well for blackspot, powdery mildew, rust, aphids, whitefly, mites, and as a bonus, it smothers insect eggs and fungal spores. This mixture is non-toxic and can be used on fruits and vegetables also.
Recipe
Add the following ingredients in the order listed to 1 gallon of water and stir thoroughly. Pour into a pump sprayer and wet all upper and lower surfaces of leaves and stems. Apply the spray early in the morning or late afternoon when the temperature is below 85 degrees.
2 tablespoons fine horticultural oil
1 tablespoon mild liquid soap (not a detergent)
1 heaping tablespoon baking soda
You can spray this mixture every 2 weeks, but you’ll probably find that spraying only once a month is enough.
Roses
Garden Care
by the Season
Hall County Agribusiness of the Year 2007
- Full Bloom Nursery-
Photo: from left: Billy Skaggs
(Hall County
Extension Director)
Kellie and Tim Bowen
(Owners of Full Bloom Nursery)
“Your garden will do for you in proportion to
what you do for it”.
Award
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"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses".
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Hybrid roses on display at the nursery
The History of Roses
(from the University of Illinois Extension)
Roses have a long and colorful history. They have been symbols of love, beauty, war, and politics. The rose is, according to fossil evidence, 35 million years old. In nature, the genus Rosa has some 150 species spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from Alaska to Mexico and including northern Africa. Garden cultivation of roses began some 5,000 years ago, probably in China. During the Roman period, roses were grown extensively in the Middle East. They were used as confetti at celebrations, for medicinal purposes, and as a source of perfume. Roman nobility established large public rose gardens in the south of Rome. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the popularity of roses seemed to rise and fall depending on gardening trends of the time.
During the fifteenth century, the rose was used as a symbol for the factions fighting to control England. The white rose symbolized York, and the red rose symbolized Lancaster, as a result, the conflict became known as the "War of the Roses."
Roses were in such high demand during the seventeenth century that royalty considered roses or rose water as legal tender, and they were often used as barter and for payments. Napoleon's wife Josephine established an extensive collection of roses at Chateau de Malmaison, an estate seven miles west of Paris in the 1800s. This garden became the setting for Pierre Joseph Redoute's work as a botanical illustrator. In 1824, he completed his watercolor collection "Les Rose," which is still considered one of the finest records of botanical illustration.
It wasn't until the late eighteenth century that cultivated roses were introduced into Europe from China. Most modern-day roses can be traced back to this ancestry. These introductions were repeat bloomers, making them unusual and of great interest to hybridizers, setting the stage for breeding work with native roses to select for hardiness and a long bloom season. Many of these early efforts by plant breeders are of great interest to today's gardeners.
Roses are once again enjoying a resurgence in popularity, specifically, shrub roses and old garden roses. These roses fit the lifestyle of today's gardeners who want roses that are not as demanding with regard to disease control, offer excellent floral quality, have excellent winter hardiness, and fit into shrub borders and perennial gardens without seeming out of place.
