Why give someone cut flowers in vase when living flowers can bring smiles again and again? Roses in particular can be surprisingly easy to maintain if you know a few simple tricks to keep them healthy and full for years to come.
Gloves and roses
Simplifying care of your roses starts with their selection. Choosing robust varieties such as Julia Child, Flower Carpet Scarlet and many others, mean all you’ll need do is feed and trim them annually. Leave those more temperamental varieties to the serious gardeners.
While feeding is important, grooming your roses will not only keep them healthier, but produce a greater number of blooms. Best of all, it’s easy.
Groom roses like a pro
The best time to prune is early spring. Don’t be intimidated. Your goal: remove non-negotiable growth, thing and shape your plants. For best results, make your cuts a quarter inch above a bud eye so it won’t dry out.
We asked Mary from RCW Nurseries to demonstrate proper pruning techniques. Learn how to get healthier roses by watching her step-by-step demonstration.
Anytime rose care
Of course, there is some care you can do anytime. For instance, dead is dead and can be trimmed away any time of year. Same goes for damaged wood; trim it back about an inch into health wood.
If you have stems rubbing together, trim one off and spare the other. While it’s a matter of taste, trimming off stems growing in the wrong direction or trailing to the ground will help these others grow even stronger.
Our Trusted Company for roses, RCW Nurseries, has a wealth of information on choosing and caring for roses. We recommend you visit RCW’s site if you have a sprouting interest in roses.
