Pick a sunny
location
To remain healthy, roses require a location with a minimum of
six hours of sunlight each day. If you have to pick a spot that is shaded for
part of the day, select one that protects your plants from the hot afternoon sun.
Roses grown with less than six hours of sun will produce fewer blooms and are
more susceptible to diseases.
Dig a big hole
The hole you
dig today will be home to your new rose bush for the next twenty years. Be sure
to dig a hole at least 24” x 24” x 18” deep for regular roses—smaller for miniature
varieties. You will be rewarded with many more blooms for the extra time it
takes to dig a proper hole. Amend the soil: In the Richmond area, most soils
are heavy clay. Before you put the soil back in the hole, you will want to mix
it with 50-percent organic matter to break up the clay and make it easier for
the roots to penetrate the soil. You can mix in decayed leaves, compost, grass
clippings, peat moss or clay cutter. Use whatever you have available and is most
affordable.
Water regularly
Until your new rose grows a full
root system, it needs a lot of water to survive. For the first two weeks, water
regularly so that the soil remains moist. Don’t feed your roses until they have
been in the ground at least six weeks—early feeding can damage tender new roots.
Why spray your roses
While modern roses have been bred for
large flowers and rapid repeat bloom, many have lost their resistance to disease
and plant pests. This can easily be remedied with a program of regular spraying.
Blackspot
Blackspot is the most common plant disease affecting roses. Starting
mid-spring, quarter-inch black spots appear on the leaves. Within days, all the
leaves yellow and drop from the plant. If you have only a few rose bushes, a product
such as Ortho Rose Pride Orthenex will fight both black spot and common insect
pests. If you are growing dozens of roses, you may want to alternate every other
week with Ortho Funginex and Bonide Mancozeb or Novartis Banner Max to prevent
the blackspot fungus developing immunity to the spray.
Thrips
Thrips are elongated insects about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
In the spring, thrips enter rose blooms just as they are opening. Thrip infestation
can prevent your rose buds from opening fully and cause them to rot on the plant.
A weekly application of Ortho Rose Pride Orthenex or Ortho Isotox helps eliminate
thrip problems.
Spider Mites
These appear during dry spells
and can be seen as light colored specks moving on the underside of leaves. On
particularly heavy infestations, webs are visible as leaves are leached gray.
Twice weekly applications of Ortho Rose Pride Orthenex, Novartis Avid, Bonide
Kelthane or Ortho Isotox will eliminate this pest.
Caution: All
pesticides and fungicides are toxic to some degree and should be applied strictly
according to the manufacturer’s instructions and precautions listed on the bottle.
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