by Patricia Young

Created on: September 07, 2008

Roses come in many forms standard roses, carpet roses, climbing roses, old world roses, modern shrub roses, thornless roses and weeping roses. Roses have been in cultivation for around 5000 years and are loved by almost everyone, after all, roses have beautiful blooms and they are easy to grow.

Planting roses is best done in late Fall or early Winter. It is best to get them well established before the frosts arrive and kill the new growth leaves.

When my family moved house in the summertime, I dug up my thirty rose bushes to take to our new house. Although it was in the heat of summer, I was so happy that my roses all survived the move. I followed all the rules of planting and made sure that my bushes were watered daily for the first month.

The first thing to do is to prepare your garden beds with lots of mulch. Roses love mulch. Roses thrive in a clay soil, but they will grow well in a loamy soil that is well composted. A deep bed of mulch and organic matter mixed with straw and grass clippings will give you happy roses with masses of beautiful blooms. You will need to water your roses daily for the first month after planting to get them established. After that, a weekly watering is all that is required.

Most roses are sold in brown paper bags containing a small amount of sawdust or sphagnum moss to keep the roots moist. Open the bag carefully to free the roots and place the rose bush in a bucket of water containing a small amount of seaweed fertilizer.

First dig a large hole. It must be large enough to take the roots without bending them, so that the union where the cultivated rose has been budded and joined to the understock and the point where the top growth begins is just above the surface of the soil. When you have dug the hole to the correct size, place a small pile of composted soil or leaf matter in the bottom of the hole. Next gently place the rose into the center of the hole and back fill around it. Water the rose bush thoroughly immediately after planting. If you don't mind getting muddy as you plant, fill the hole with water and let it seep into the soil before planting the rose, and then sprinkle again after planting.

When planting Standard Roses, the procedure is different. They need to be planted quite shallowly. A stake long enough to support the plant to reach just below the point of budding should be included in the hole at the time of planting. A standard roses's point of budding is much higher than other roses. If put in later, the stake may damage the roots of the rose bush.

Now you have your rose bushes planted, sit back and watch the new growth forming on the stems, then in Spring and Summer you can marvel and wonder at the beauty and perfume of your very own bed of Roses

www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories
Roses by H. Edland

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