Search

Roses Gardening 101: The Ultimate Beginner’s Manual

Table of Contents

Roses are not only beautiful plants but also very beneficial for your garden. Honestly, I never thought I’d grow them in my entire gardening journey. But I’ve changed my mind because, as I said earlier, there are many benefits to growing roses. And in today’s article, I’m going to change yours too.

The Fascinating World of Roses

The rose family is incredible. In fact, the family itself, Rosaceae, is one of the six most economically important families in the world. And you would not believe the plants that are included: apples, pears, quinces, loquats, almonds, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, strawberries, blackberries, and, of course, roses.

Roses Through Time: A Journey of 35 Million Years

Rose cultivation is thought to have originated in China about 5,000 years ago, but the species themselves are estimated to be 35 million years old. So, a fantastically old plant that was cultivated in the Middle East during the Roman Empire, as well as throughout history. As a symbol, roses in human society are so popular and so ubiquitous that, in fact, they were used for war. In the 15th century in England, you have the War of the Roses: York on one side, Lancaster on the other, white roses for York, red roses for Lancaster. But as a symbol and a currency, in the 17th century in Europe, you’ve got roses and rose water. Both were legal tender in Europe.

Rose Cultivars: Endless Varieties for Every Garden

When you think about growing roses, certainly when I thought about it, I thought, I need to be an old English grandmother in the countryside, lovingly caring for these over decades to have the experience and knowledge to grow roses successfully. And I’m here happily to say that that really is not true. There are roses that can grow pretty much anywhere, in any climate, from zone three all the way up to zone 10 plus. And there are 30,000 different cultivars of roses in the world, at least that I know of right now. I’m sure there are more coming every single day.

Grafted vs. Own Root Roses: What You Need to Know

A quick rose botany lesson. This actually applies to a lot of your fruit trees as well, similar principle. But basically, when you go to any sort of big box store or production rose place, what you’ll find are what are called grafted roses. So there’s a rootstock, a root system below, which has a particular type of benefit. Maybe it’s a little more disease-resistant or something, or maybe it’s just a cheap and easy rootstock that exists. And they’ll take a variety and graft it on. So everything that grows above the soil is the rose that you actually want.

And then there’s its own root rose, meaning that the entire plant genetically is the exact same plant. What that means is that any sort of shoots that are coming up from the root area are just going to be the same rose. You don’t have to worry about doing any pruning down below to make sure that you’re only preserving grafted tissue up above. And then also that graft point, as with any sort of grafting situation, it is a chink in the armor of the rose, which can lead to some issues. There are ways to mitigate that.

Now, I like both types of roses, grafted and own root roses, but I’ve never really experimented with my own roots before. And I think it’s really interesting that no matter what, I know I’m getting this beautiful rose flower, no matter what shoot comes out of the soil here.

Types of Roses: Find Your Perfect Match

Let’s talk about rose types. There are a lot of different types, but let’s start off with the most popular one, which would be a hybrid tea rose.

Hybrid Tea Roses: The Classic Choice

Black Pearl rose Heirloom Roses

This one is called Black Pearl from Heirloom Roses. It’s a really gorgeous variety. Hybrid teas are the most popular, probably because the flowers are massive. It is a huge bloom, gorgeous on long stems. The plants are about three to six feet tall. They need some winter protection. Most of them bloom in spring or fall. And it’s just a classic. It is a rose’s rose if there ever was one.

Floribunda Roses: Beauty in Clusters

Next up, you’ve got Floribunda roses. They’re generally derived from hybrid teas.

Hot Cocoa rose

This one right here is called Hot Cocoa. It is a gorgeous one. Great for pots, great for cuttings. The primary difference here is they’ll be a little smaller than hybrid teas, but also the flowers grow more in clusters rather than singles. And they’re really good cutting roses.

Grandiflora & Miniature Roses: Versatility for Every Space

The next two are Grandiflora. So that’s going to be a cross between hybrid tea and Floribunda. Starting to get confusing here, but just another variety. Looks amazing. Great category of roses. And then for small space growers, apartments, patios, smaller little containers or hedgerows or something like that, you’ve got miniature roses. So they’re basically just bred to be small versions of classic roses. Not going to get more than about two feet tall. A great thing to use to line a path or just put in a pot.

Climbing Roses: Vertical Elegance

Next, you have my current favorite category, which is a climbing or rambling style rose. I think what’s important here is that it doesn’t actually climb much like a pea would with its tendrils. It affixes itself to some sort of structure, pulls itself up. They have thorns. They’ll sort of stick their way up things.

Shrub Roses: Perfect for Hedging and Landscaping

Next, you’ve got the shrub roses. So if you have the opposite problem, you don’t have a lot of vertical space, but you want to create a hedgerow or a shrubbing style, then these ones are great. Very weather-tolerant, maybe a little more disease-resistant than average varieties. Two from Heirloom Roses, Westerland and Louise Clements. To me, I’m actually thinking about putting some of these in areas where maybe I want to discourage someone from walking. Maybe right along a path that I don’t want someone reaching into or something like that. So another way to think about roses as landscaping and human design elements in a garden.

Mastering Rose Care: Tips for Thriving Plants

Let’s talk about rose care. Fragrant Cloud is for sure the sweetest smelling rose I’ve personally ever smelled. Almost smells like rose candy or rose jelly. And let’s talk about how to make sure you’re going to get some of these beautiful blooms.

Ideal Location: Sun, Airflow, and Soil

Plant these in an area where it gets full sun throughout the day, good airflow, good air circulation. And the soil must be fertile, not too tough, not too sandy. It’s a really good spot.

Spacing Your Roses: Room to Grow

Let’s talk about spacing these roses. Space them out at least two or three feet from one another. Plan for their future growth because they’re going to bush up and kind of fill in the area. So give them that space to do so.

Planting Depth: Setting Roots the Right Way

When you’re talking about actually getting them in the ground, what I do is brush away the mulch layer and dig a hole large enough for that pot to go in. So, fit the pot there and then get it in there and just make sure you do not go too low. Basically, match where the soil is in the pot to the soil in the ground. You actually might want to even tamp that soil down around, make sure there are no air pockets, throw mulch on, then give it a nice healthy water.

Growing Roses in Containers: Compact Beauty

For container roses, you’re probably going to want to go with a miniature if you’re in a pot. Some of the other ones that I’ve talked about, you actually want a decent-sized pot because they can grow quite big. But let’s just say I’ve got a miniature. What I want to do is fill this up with a third compost, a third potting soil, a third manure. Pretty solid mix for roses there. A clay pot is better than plastic. It’s going to make sure that soil gets to seep out and moisture can escape. Good drainage hole on the bottom as well. And then you just want to fill it up much like you would put it in the ground. The thing you want to watch out for, if it’s a grafted rose, if you’re planting something like this from Heirloom Roses, it’s an own root rose, you don’t really have to worry as much. But if there was a graft, you don’t want to bury that graft point. And ideally, something I learned from my days managing the small orchard that I have here is you want to face that graft point to the north, so away from the sun. So there’s no sun damage kind of beating down on it. But yeah, I mean, all you’re going to do is just plop it in, match it to the top, water it in well, throw some mulch on, and you’re good to go.

Fertilizing Roses: Nourishing Your Blooms

Let’s talk about fertilizing these bad boys. First, what you want to do is move your mulch layer away. You want to make sure you expose that soil and use something a little higher in nitrogen earlier in the season. It really isn’t that big a deal though. And then every two to four weeks or so, you should do this if you’re really caring for your roses throughout the season. As you get towards fall, that’s of course when you’re not going to see as much blooming and as much vegetative growth. Then what you want to do is go in with something like bone meal to support the blooms in the next season. But after you’ve done this, you want to get into watering roses, which is really important when you’re planting them for the first time.

Watering Roses: Essential Tips for Healthy Growth

When you’re watering your roses, I like to kind of think of it as a meditative experience because it can take some time to really penetrate that soil and get the water deep down there, especially for an establishing ground plant. But if you’ve just put the plants in the

 ground, water it daily or almost daily until you start to see it establish. Until you start to see some new growth come out, then drop it down to a couple of times per week, two or three times. And you really need to remember with roses, make sure you’re modulating that based on the temperature. So the hotter it gets, the more you’re going to want to water. Just make sure you support these guys. Putting it on irrigation is also a pretty good call.

Pruning Roses: A Guide to Shaping and Health

Something that freaks a lot of rose growers out is the pruning process. It can be a little intimidating. I would recommend some gloves if you’ve got some thorny roses. But a couple of guidelines: What you want to do, the three D’s are always applicable: dead, diseased, damaged, remove all of that immediately. If you have any leaves still showing up in late winter, early spring, you may want to remove those ones. But what you want to do is, if you’re making a cut, come in at a 45-degree angle and make that cut. Boom, clean cut. You’re going to get water falling off instead of pooling at the top. It’s a small thing, but it matters. And you can also put a pruning sealer on there if you really want to make sure that your roses aren’t susceptible to disease. There’s a lot of different things, like fire blight, for example, can hit a rose. If you want to make sure you don’t deal with that, I would seal it off. But again, you’re just sort of cutting and shaping it down at the beginning of the season for growth.

So, embrace the rose grandmother grower within you. I certainly have. And start getting into these this season. It’s so fun. I’m excited to plant my own root roses from Heirloom Roses. If you found this article helpful, please give it a review and share it with your friends. Stay in touch with us for more fantastic gardening tips and outdoor inspiration. Your questions and thoughts are always welcome, so feel free to leave a comment below. Good luck in the garden and keep on growing.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Want to keep up with our blog?

Get our most valuable tips right inside your inbox, once per month!

Related Posts

FRUITS & VEGETABLES, GARDENING, Uncategorized
Scroll to Top