Rose Garden Spring To Do List

by Diane Brueckman

Spring is just around the corner and it’s time to start thinking about our roses. My first thought is don’t uncover your roses until April 15. So far winter has not been overly cold or wintery but just as we start thinking winter is gone it will rear its frosty head and nip our roses. Some will not survive a deep freeze, others may not be affected, but why take a chance by uncovering the roses too soon. There are some chores that need to be done that will satisfy that urge to get into the rose garden.

Start by cleaning up any climbers you have by cutting the lateral canes back to 4 bud-eyes and removing any dead or diseased canes. This will encourage more bloom along the main canes. Roses typically bloom at the ends of the canes, by trimming the lateral canes you will get blooms at the ends of the lateral canes. Clean any weeds in the climber beds and add an organic fertilizer. Scratch the organic fertilizer into the top of the bed and add fresh mulch. Your climbers are now ready to face another season.

Next job is to clean up your shrub roses. All roses appreciate a good pruning and that includes the ‘Knock Out” family of roses. Thin out the center of the plants by removing crossing canes (canes growing through the center of the bush) as well as any spindly, broken or diseased canes. Trim about 1/3 of the plant’s growth. You will be rewarded with more bloom and a well-behaved bush. Clean up the beds as you did for your climbers. Doing both the climbers and shrubs will give you a head start on opening your garden for a summer of beautiful blooms.

Check with local nurseries to see what they have. As consumers we must make it known that we are interested in the hybrid tea, floribunda and grandiflora roses and support the nurseries that carry them. There has been an increased interest in roses since the covid shut-down.

Hopefully, that interest will be noticed by the local nurseries and reflected in the roses they offer. Many of my rose-growing friends are searching for these beautiful roses to no avail. Even the miniature roses are scarce. One advantage to shopping at the local independent garden sources is the care the plants are given. Their staffs are trained to recognize the needs of the plants from the day they arrive. You also see what you are getting and can get advice from the staff on care and feeding of your new plant. One idea is to look on the Weeks Roses and Star Roses and Plants websites. When you find a rose you like they have a tab that will take you to a site that will give you locations, in zip code, that sells their roses.

There are many mail-order sites that sell roses. They do sell out quickly, so check early. If you order bare-root roses through a catalog, be sure they ship no later than April for planting in St. Louis. When the roses are potted the timing is not as critical. A potted rose can be planted any time. Usually, the potted roses are own-root and very tiny. The rose will need to be babied for the first year but I have heard they usually do well. I do not recommend mail-order simply because you do not know what you are getting and the price is usually very high.

Let me say again, we need to make our wishes known or we will lose many options for purchasing the roses we love.