d213 rose culture nov01

8/13/2019 d213 Rose Culture Nov01

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D-2-13 MG/DWM reviewed RT 11/01

Helping You Put Knowledge to Work Cornell Cooperative Extension provides equal program and employment opportunities

Cornell Cooperative ExtensionNassau County

Horticulture ProgramEisenhower Park East Meadow, N.Y. 11554

Home Grounds Fact Sheet

Rose Culture and Pruning

1. Hybrid teas - Large blooms, oneto a stem, particularly desirablefor cut flowers, ever-blooming,usually fragrant.

2. Floribunda - Smaller plants thanhybrid teas, smaller blooms insprays, ever-blooming, vigorous,tolerating lower temperature thanhybrid tea roses, excellent forlandscape use.

3. Grandiflora - Forms larger flow-ers than floribundas, usually inshowy clusters, tall, good for

background border and cutting(3 to 6 feet).

4A. Shrub roses - Hardy and dis-ease resistant, minimum care,free blooming, masses ofsmaller blooms (all season),wide range of sizes and shapes.

4B. Trailing roses - Produce longcanes that creep along theground, good on walks or asground cover for banks, ex-tremely hardy.

5. Miniatures - Plants ordinarily notover 1-1/2 feet tall and oftensmaller. Leaves and flowersvery small. Used mostly for rockgardens, edging or containers.Most bloom continually. One ofthe hardiest popular roses.

Hybrid tea

Floribunda

Grandiflora

Roses have the distinction of being among the oldest cultivated ornamental plantsfound in todays gardens. Their flowers are loved for their shape, color and fragranc

Given sunshine and good growing conditions, roses can add beauty to ones garden or land

Climbers produce long canes and require support.1. Ramblers have small flowers in

dense clusters. Flowers once aseason on wood produced the pre-ceding year.

2. Large-flowered climbers and ever-blooming climbers growmore slowly than ramblers. Flow-ers larger than ramblers useful forcutting. Flowers profusely in earlysummer and fall; a few scattered

flowers in between.3. Climbing hybrid teas, polyan-

thas and floribundas have flow-ers on second year wood identi-cal to the bush roses but does notbloom as continuously as bushforms.

6. Tree or Standards - Tree formsdeveloped by grafting of bushroses on upright trunks. Re-quires elaborate winter protection.

7. Old-Garden roses - Varieties

and species popular in colonialgardens, fragrant, flower in June.

8. Polyanthas - Flowers are flatterand smaller than floribundas andin large sprays.

9. Hybrid perpetuals - Large flow-ers, most do not bear continu-ously as do the hybrid teas,among the most cold-resistant ofgarden roses.

TYPES:Roses (bush type) grow 1 to 6feet and require no support.


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PLANTING ROSESBuy Grade #1 labeled roses

only from reputable sources.

When to plant Bare root roses should be plantedonly in early spring or late fall. Con-tainer-grown roses are best plantedin early spring and fall, but can alsogo in during the summer.

Planting site(a) The site must have at least sixhours of sun daily, preferably morn-ing sun. Roses require a well-drained soil with a pH of 6.0 to 6.5and high organic content. Test thesoil pH before planting. See HomeGrounds Fact Sheet A-1-0 for in-structions. This will determine howmuch dolomitic limestone might have

to be applied.Installing the plant (b) Spacing - Space hybrid teas,grandifloras and floribundas approxi-mately 3' apart, depending on ma-ture or desired size of plant; shrubroses, a minimum of 4' apart; climb-ers 8' to 10' apart.

(c) Planting - For bare root roses,soak in water for several hours orcover with moist soil for severalhours to several days before plant-ing. Prune the tops if not done be-fore purchasing by removing twiggystems, damaged or badly spacedstems and shorten others to 8" to 1'long. In the prepared bed, dig a hole15" deep and 18" wide for each plant.Form a small cone-shaped pile ofsoil in the center of the planting holeand firm it down. Spread the rootsuniformly over the cone. Fill in abouthalf the remaining hole with soil andadd water. When it drains, fill in therest of the hole and water again. Becertain to keep the soil around newly-planted roses moist, but not soggy.Root establishment is critical; do notallow soil to dry out. Regular water-ing should be done throughout thegrowing season. (1" to 1-1/2" of wa-ter per week if no rainfall.) For container-grown roses, prun-ing before planting is usually not nec-essary. Water thoroughly a fewhours before planting. In the pre-pared bed, dig a hole several inches

wider than

1 Prepare the entire bed by spadingdeeply. Dig each hole 15" to 18" wideand deep, large enough to accommodatethe roots. Add a quart of compost, peatmoss or other organic matter and mixwell with the soil. Add a handful of superphosphate or bone meal to bottom of holeand mix with soil. Form a blunt pyramidof the mixture in the center of the plantinghole.

Rose Planting in 5 Steps(Bare-Rooted Roses)

5 Mound soil around and over the plantto 6" deep. This protects canes fromdrying out. When buds sprout, graduallyremove soil mound, probably within 2weeks or so, checking every 2 to 3 days.Loosen name tag so it does not constrictcane. When vigorous growth starts, ap-ply fertilizer according to manufacturersdirections. (Do not add a complete fertil-izer to the planting mix. Doing so willdelay growth and can injure the develop-ing roots.)

4 Fill hole with water and allow to soakin, then refill with water. After waterdrains, check to see that the bud unionremains at the proper level. Fill remain-der of hole with soil and tamp lightly. Trimcanes back to 8 inches, making cuts 1/4"above an outward-facing bud at a 45 de-gree angle.

3 Work soil mixture around the roots toeliminate any air pockets. Firm the soilaround the roots and add more soil untilthe hole is three quarters full.

2 Remove any broken or injured rootsor canes, and canes less than pencil-size in thickness. Position rose on soilpyramid so the bud union (the swelling atthe stem base) is just above the groundlevel after the soil settles in mild climatesand about 1" to 2" below the surface in

climates where winter temperatures fallbelow freezing. Spread roots in a naturalmanner down the slope of the soil pyra-mid.


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the container in which the rose isgrowing. Remove the plant from thecontainer by cutting down the sideand carefully removing the plant with-out breaking the soil ball. Removethe box and do not plant in it even ifthe directions tell you to. Positionthe soil ball in the hole at the samelevel it was growing in the container.Fill around it with amended soil, pack-ing down firmly. Water well.

(d) Winter protection - When plant-ing bare root roses or container grownroses not in leaf, mound the soil 8"to 10" high around the canes of bushand climbing roses; 3" to 4" aroundminiatures. Remove the soil moundcarefully when new growth is 1-2"long. Mounding gives protection fromdesiccation by sun and wind untilnew feeding roots develop; and withfall planted roses, affords winter

protection.

Protect standard roses by (C)loosening root, bending down andburying in (B) soil and coveringwith (A) evergreen boughs or (D)

wrap in corn stalks.

MAINTENANCE INGROWING SEASON1. Mulch - Use a 2" to 3" layer ofmulch, such as wood chips, pinebark, pine needles or oak leaves tocontrol weeds and to conserve mois-ture.

2. Water - Water well once-a-weekwith a soaker hose except in weekswhen there has been 1" or more ofrain.

3. Fertilizer - Fertilize with 5-10-5,10-10-10, 10-6-4 or similar formulain early spring when 3" to 4" of newgrowth is starting. Apply 3 to 4pounds to 100 square feet or 3/4cup per bush around perimeter ofplant. Avoid contact with plant. Thenscratch in lightly and water thor-oughly. Additional applications

should be made monthly during thegrowing season, but only up to mid-August. For newly planted rosebushes, add fertilizer only after thefirst blooming cycle and thereafteronly once a month. It is sound prac-tice to top dress with compost orwell rotted manure in the late fall tobuild up organic matter in the soil.

Cutting The first season new bushes are

planted, it is best to cut flowers only

to remove faded blooms, leaving asmany stems and leaves as possibleto nourish the plant. When possibleleave at least two five-leaflet clustersbetween the cut and the main stem.Remove all faded blossoms by cut-ting 1/4" above the nearest outwardfacing bud with the cut at a 45 de-gree angle.

Pruning 1. Climbers and Shrub Roses - Prune climbers just after they haveflowered, removing faded flowers andshaping. Next years flowers will beborne on the laterals of newer canes.The only pruning to be done on climb-ers in spring is to remove the oldest,

winter killed canes leaving 5 or 6

shiny, green new ones and to cor-rect shape and size.

2. Bush roses - In the fall, prunebush roses (hybrid teas, grandiflo-ras and floribunda) back to 3'-4' toprevent the winter winds from whip-ping the canes about. Prune morethoroughly in the early spring whenforsythia blooms. Cut out all dis-eased, winter killed or weak twiggywood. A high or conservative prun-ing will result in more flowers ontaller plants. A low pruning pro-duces shorter plants with fewer butlarger flowers. In either case, thepruning cut should be just above abud that points outward. This will

result in a well shaped plant.

Winter Protection for Long Island (Note - Generally well-cared for roses do not need this special protec-tion. This procedure is included for those growing roses in highly-exposed or extremely cold pockets on Long Island or those that wantto offer their plants the ultimate in protection.)

A. first heap soilB. pile on leaves

A

B

Wrap climbers in burlap or heavy paper.


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D-2-13 MG/DWM reviewed RT 11/01

Floribundas are usually not pruned

as severely as hybrid teas. Evenso, be sure to remove any dead,broken, damaged or blotchedbranches back to where the pithor center of the cane is white andhealthy looking. Next removeweak, spindly canes, canes grow-ing toward the center of the bush,the weaker of two canes that criss-cross, canes that grow out thenup and suckers, if any.

Pruning Methods Helpful Hints1. Practice good sanitation. Remove

diseased and damaged foliagefrom the plant and on the groundas often as possible. This is par-ticularly important in the late fallto minimize wintering over of dis-eases and harmful insects.

2. Do not plant roses in close prox-imity to large, surface rooted treesor shrubs.

3. Roses love water but not on thefoliage. Water deeply no morethan once each week with asoaker hose. Avoid planting roseswithin the range of lawn sprinklersystems that wet the foliage fre-quently. Choose a location thatprovides good air circulation.

4. In late spring and early summer,hand pick any beetles that mayappear. Use a spray of water towash off aphids, especially inspring.

5. Plant hardy roses if care is lim-ited. Shrub roses and specificvarieties of other types of rosesare excellent. See the Handbookfor Selecting Roses from theAmerican Rose Society, Shreve-

port, LA. Telephone (318) 938-5402, E-mail: [email protected].

outside

bud 45 -65 degrees

The basic technique for mostpruning is to cut 1/4 inch abovethe nearest outward-facing budwith the cut at a 45 degreeangle (the higher point above thebud).

5Sucker Bud Union

To prune hybrid tea and grandi-flora roses, follow these steps: (1)high pruning for more flowers ear-lier or low pruning for fewer, big-ger flowers later; (2) pruning toremove weak and crisscrossingcanes (3) removing growth an inch

below a canker; (4) removal ofdamaged, dead or broken canesback to healthy growth and (5)removing sucker growth as closeas possible to main root. It isgood practice to seal the ends ofcut branches with white glue.

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d213 rose culture nov01

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