The roses are coming

roses are coming

During early spring, roses are awakening from their winter slumber and preparing for a spectacular floral display. Whether you’ve just planted a new rose during winter or have had a favourite rose (or two) in your garden for years, spring is the time to set roses up for a fantastic season of healthy growth and masses of flowers.

Here’s your easy spring rose care plan:

APHID CONTROL

Aphids are one of the main pests to look out for on young rose leaf growth and flower buds. Aphids can occur in their dozens (or hundreds!) and feast on the delicious sweet rose sap. Left unchecked, aphids deplete roses of valuable nutrients and plant sugars as well as causing new leaves to deform. Aphids can also transmit plant viruses. So, it’s important to control aphids in spring before they cause damage. Applying Yates ® Rose Gun ® over new rose foliage and flower buds every two weeks will help keep aphids under control and your roses protected.

SPRING FEEDING

To promote healthy leaf and stem growth and encourage lots of blooms in garden and potted roses, sprinkle some Yates Thrive ® Rose &

Flower Granular Plant Food

around each rose. It’s rich in potassium to promote lots of flowers and contains slow release nitrogen to feed plants gradually for up to 12 weeks. To help retain soil moisture, apply a layer of mulch, such as bark chips, over the root zone, keeping the mulch a few centimetres away from the stem to allow for good air flow.

CATERPILLAR CONTROL

The fabulous rose blooms that you’ve been waiting patiently for are also being eagerly anticipated by some very hungry caterpillars. Caterpillars can chew through and into rose buds as well as eating leaves. Control these destructive caterpillars by spraying roses thoroughly every two weeks, including the undersides of foliage where caterpillars often hide, with Yates Rose Gun ® .

Beginner gardeners

NEW TO ROSES?

In addition to controlling aphids and caterpillars, Yates Rose Gun will also control other common pests of roses, such thrips, whitefly and two-spotted mites, as well as dreaded rose diseases like black spot, powdery mildew and rust. So, with Yates Rose Gun, you don’t need to be a rose expert to know how to protect your roses!

Growing the perfect potted rose

You don’t need a large space to have your very own rose garden. Many roses are perfectly suited to growing in pots, where they can be beautifully displayed on a veranda, courtyard or balcony. One of the many benefits of growing roses in pots is that they can be moved into the spotlight while they’re in full bloom. If you missed out on planting a bare rooted rose during winter, many gorgeous rose varieties are available in pots from garden centres during spring.

HERE’S HOW TO START YOUR OWN POTTED ROSE:

Half fill a 30-40 cm diameter well-drained pot with a good quality potting mix, such as Yates ® Premium Potting Mix. Gently remove the rose from its plain plastic pot. If the roots are dense or tangled, gently tease out the outer layer. Place the rose in the new pot and backfill around the roots with potting mix. Ensure that the level of new potting mix is at the same height as the existing mix around the rose. The graft (the bump on the stem) should sit around 5cm above the potting mix. Water the pot gently to settle the potting mix around the rose’s roots. After a fortnight, the rose can then be fed each week with

Yates Thrive ® Roses & Flowers

Liquid Plant Food. It’s specially designed to both encourage healthy leaf growth as well as promote lots of beautiful flowers. Potted roses can dry out rapidly in warm weather, so make sure to water them regularly. Watch out for pests and diseases, such as aphids, caterpillars and black spot, which can ruin both leaves and flowers. Yates Rose Gun is a handy ready to use spray that will control the most common pests and diseases on roses.