Proper care of roses will ensure their attractive appearance and abundant flowering. If you correctly follow all the necessary procedures, your rose garden will always look neat and pleasing to the eye. It is important not to forget about feeding roses in spring and other seasons – the right fertilizers will give the plant vitality. And, of course, one should not forget about regular watering and loosening the soil under the bushes.
How to water roses
Watering should be carried out at least once a week, and if the summer is dry, then more often. Newly planted seedlings and transplanted bushes need more frequent and abundant watering, as thanks to the water they will be able to take root faster in a new place.
The growing region and the conditions in which roses grow also affect the frequency and abundance of watering.
As a rule, one bush during the growing season needs 15-20 liters of water per week, since at this time the buds open and leaves appear. The same applies to the period after the first flowering, when the first shoots begin to grow. In hot and dry weather, it is necessary to water twice a week.
Closer to autumn, roses begin to need less moisture. With continued abundant watering, young shoots will grow intensively, which during the autumn period will not have time to get stronger and die in winter. Therefore, with the onset of autumn, it is recommended to stop watering altogether, and especially if it is rainy.
When caring for a rose garden before the onset of frost, it is recommended to water the bushes abundantly, pour an average of 30 liters of water under each bush.
Before watering roses, stock up on warm, settled water.
The drip method is best for watering roses.
The ideal time to water roses is in the morning. At this time, the sun does not burn much and water drops on the leaves do not cause burns. During the day, excess moisture evaporates and the risk of developing fungal diseases, such as powdery mildew, is reduced.
Rules for weeding roses
When caring for roses, weeding should not be neglected, because if weeds grow, they will draw nutrients and water from the soil. Usually weeding is carried out with a hoe.
When weeding roses, it is recommended to follow a few simple rules:
1. Most of the weeds that appear in flower beds are annual plants that propagate by seeds. It is necessary to remove such weeds before they have seeds, then in the future they will germinate much less.
2. When using a hoe or other weeding tool, it is recommended to avoid contact with the stems and do not penetrate deeper than 2-3 cm into the soil, so as not to damage the roots.
3. Weeding is best done in dry weather, as in this case the weeds will dry out faster. In wet weather, weeds that are weeded out can become a breeding ground for pests or diseases.
4. Weeding is desirable even in autumn.
Loosening young and adult roses
Loosening roses is also vital for the proper development of plants, as it increases the air permeability of the soil. Often it is accompanied by weeding the soil, which helps to solve two important problems at once.
As a rule, loosening is carried out after watering the plants, when the water is well absorbed into the soil. In this case, a crust will not form on the surface, preventing the penetration of oxygen to the root system. However, deep loosening of the soil near rose bushes is not recommended, as there is a possibility of damage to the roots, from which the plant can get sick.
Young roses need to be loosened once a month, then this will be of real benefit. Adult plants are subjected to it in the following cases: in early spring, when the soil thaws; in spring and summer after fertilizing the soil; in autumn after pruning; in October before shelter for the winter; regularly after each watering or rain, so that the water evaporates faster.
Rose care: top dressing in spring
It is best to feed roses with a complex mixture consisting of potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen, taken in a ratio of 1:2:1. From organic fertilizers, bird droppings and manure are most suitable for them. However, these fertilizers are not used fresh, as they can cause burns. Therefore, manure and bird droppings need to dry out for several weeks. Then they are diluted with water in a ratio of 1:4 and allowed to brew for 2-3 days. After that, 1 liter of the resulting slurry is diluted with 10 liters of water and the flowers are fertilized.
When planting, it is necessary to make the first fertilizer for roses – the drug “Cytovit” is perfect. To get good results, you can mix “Cytovit” with “Zircon”, which is a root formation stimulator, so that the young bush will begin to develop roots faster.
The first dressing is done around April, two weeks after the roses are covered with leaves.
The second application of liquid fertilizers occurs approximately in mid-May – early June, i.e. somewhere in 3-4 weeks after the first. This top dressing becomes a re-blooming stimulator for some varieties of roses.
When caring for roses, top dressing in liquid form is used once a month during the entire period of plant development. The last dressing is done in the fall – in late August – early September, about two months before the onset of cold weather.
How and how to mulch roses
Mulching roses helps correct soil imperfections, enriching it with nutrients.
Thanks to mulching, approximately 50% moisture can be retained at the roots of roses. In addition, mulch lowers soil temperature by several degrees, which is especially valuable during hot and dry periods, because it allows water to linger in the soil longer, and not quickly evaporate from it. Mulch also helps prevent compaction of the topsoil.
Before mulching roses, you need to do just a few operations:
1. First, remove all weeds from under the roses and weed the soil.
2. The soil is covered with a layer of mulch, the thickness of which, depending on its type, is 4-6 cm.
3. Then they wait for the mulch layer to turn into humus, and mix it with the topsoil.
4. Again cover the soil with a layer of mulch.
There are special types of mulching layer for roses. In specialized stores, you can buy ready-made ones, the advantage of which is that they additionally saturate the soil with nitrogen and reduce the likelihood that it will become dense.
In the first half of summer, roses can be mulched with mowed grass or humus. Pebbles, crushed stone, tree bark and wood chips are not suitable for these purposes. When mulching plantings of roses with geotextiles, a free space with a diameter of 40 cm is left around the root collar.
Also, sawdust is suitable for these purposes, but not fresh, but those that have lain for more than a year.
Some growers use a thin layer of dry grass as mulch.
How to mulch roses is one of the most common questions for beginner gardeners. One of the best materials for mulching is compost, which is prepared from various components that are widely represented in any farm. For example, cut grass, coffee grounds, fallen leaves, scraps of newspapers, and even simple food waste will do.
Hay is also used for mulching roses.
You can pour a layer of mulch at any time of the year, but most often this procedure is carried out in early spring, and at the end of summer it is repeated.
Organic mulch quickly rots and increases the fertility of the soil, as well as improves its structure, which is favorable for plant development.