Additional Care
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Rose Care
If I told you how many roses I have in my garden you would think me totally crazy. Let me say that I have fresh cut roses in my home every week from April 1st to Christmas. Flowers and plants give off (breathe out) fresh oxygen, which we breathe in. Doesn't it feel good when you walk into a flower shop or nursery? Well then, put lots of roses, flowers and plants in your home. They don't take much attention, just once in a while food and water. They will make you feel better every time you take a breath.
This is how I take care of my hybrid tea and floribunda roses. I prune them in late December to force them into a dormant stage. I wait until they start to leaf out, usually early March, to first fertilize them. I use my fertilizer mixture which includes additional phosphorous. I also add Merit, our systemic insecticide. This is the only insect treatment I have to use on them all year. I mix the Merit with the entire fertilizer blend, add water and slowly pour the whole mixture in a drench method on each bush making sure that it soaks in. The fertilizer has to go down to all the roots.
I fertilize each time the blooms fall, using the same fertilizer mix without the Merit, to give the plant plenty of food to bloom again. My last fertilizing is in September. They must go dormant to stay healthy. Again, I prune them at Christmas to force them to dormancy.
FERTILIZING: Corky's can fertilize your plants while we are on the premises performing your regular scheduled pest control services. Three applications per year are recommended. Each must be performed at least 6 weeks apart (generally when petals fall) until late August. You can add Merit systemic insecticide to our special mixture during the first application in early spring.
PRUNING: Prune your roses to force them to rest for the winter months! Unpruned roses will grow into an unsightly tangle of thorny stems and will reduce weaker and smaller blooms. The pruning of tea and floribunda roses are very similar. Pruning is actually pretty easy, just cut off about ¾ of its size or down to about fifteen inches off the ground. This will open the plant so you can see what you are doing. Cut out any branches that are cutting through the middle of the plant. The idea is to make a bowl out of the center. You want it as open as possible when spring growth begins so air circulation and the sun can saturate the plant. Cut out any dead wood or weak branches that you find. Then look for the suckers. These will be branches growing out of the ground next to the plant or just above the ground growing out of the old wood and usually growing upward. These suckers will not produce blooms and will just steal food from the plant. You should only have 4 to 7 canes left. Four or five canes are best. Look at all the cuts for browning or discoloration. When you find it keep cutting lower to the next outward facing bud until you find clear cane.
Now look for outward facing buds. Cut about ½" to ¾" of an inch above the outward facing bud slanting your shears upward abut 30 degrees so the cut when finished will face the inside of the plant. This will force the plant to spread outward in the spring keeping good air circulation for as long as possible. It's easy to recognize a bud. It's a little slit in the bark of the cane where a branch will obviously grow.
When you finish pruning you should not have any leaves left on the bush. It's almost impossible to foul up this pruning job. Just get started and do it. Fifteen minutes per plant is about all you will need and you will get faster with experience. I cut my tea roses down to about twelve inches tall each year. When I get tired of that bush or if it is not producing blooms that I like I replace it with a new variety the following year. I always get the disease resistant variety. Just remember disease resistant does not mean disease free.
We will use an organic pesticide / fungicide on your roses when we do your regular service at no extra charge. It will not matter whether they're pruned or not when we spray. Rose pruning should be finished by January first.
