Winter treatment

Flower & Garden Magazine, Feb, 2002 by Ann Hooper

Here it is: winter. While temperate-climate rosarians are gearing up for spring pruning, cold-climate gardeners are lazing in front of their fireplaces, watching the snowfall and perusing the 2002 catalogs.

Commercial rose growers introduce new varieties of roses each spring, and this year's offerings are guaranteed to part you from your shekels. Every rose season I'm sure that no one will ever be able to come up with roses that are more beautiful than the ones I bought this year, but someone always does.

It takes ten years to develop a new rose, and hybridizers worldwide have created breeding programs that are now producing varieties of roses that are more disease resistant, more floriferous and easier to grow than ever before. What's that expression? This is not your mother's rosebush. Or something like that. If you've never grown roses before, or if you've tried in the past and haven't had great luck, 2002 is definitely the year to start or try again!

Of course, rosarians in every climate can count on the growability of the All-America Rose Selections. These new varieties are grown and judged for two years in more than thirty trial gardens all over the United States, so they're proven performers and easy to grow everywhere. The winning varieties for 2002 include `Starry Night,' a fabulous white shrub, and `Love & Peace,' a yellow-washed-with-bright-pink hybrid tea. I grew an advance copy of `Starry Night' this season, and it's spectacular. Can't wait to get my mitts on `Love & Peace.'

Yellow roses that have disease resistance and clear color are hard to find, but `Mellow Yellow' from Weeks Roses will be the new standard for perfect yellow color. It's a hybrid tea, so the stems are long, making it great for cutting. And the flowers last for days in the vase.

`Outta the Blue' is a new and unique magenta shrub. The flowers fade to a shade of lavender, so it looks like lots of different flowers on one plant. It's so unusual, you've gotta love it!

If you grow miniature roses--and if you don't, you should--you'll love the bright red `Merlot,' the nifty yellow `Sweet Diana,' and the magnificently formed orange and yellow `Best Friends.' All three are winners of the American Rose Society Award of Excellence for 2002.

Now, you folks who are sitting around the pool, throwing a handful of fertilizer on your roses every now and then, better start thinking about forcing your roses into dormancy. Unlike most perennial plants, roses will grow and bloom year-round if left to their own devices. They love to perform, and will gladly wear themselves out just to please the rosarian. But to keep rose plants strong and healthy and provide great blooms for years to come, they need a rest for a few weeks at the coolest part of the year. This is January and February in most warm climates, so you should stop/have stopped fertilizing in the middle of December.

Cutting back the canes and removing the leaves from perfectly healthy rosebushes is much more traumatic for the rosarian than it is for the plant. So grit your teeth and just do it. Experience will tell you just how far to cut back. It depends on how large the plant is and whether or not you need to prone to keep it within bounds. But remember that you'll have fewer, but larger, flowers if you prune low, and more, but smaller, flowers if you prune high. If your plant is healthy, you can prune back to a foot or two with no ill effects.

You'll want to spray with a good dormant spray that includes a copper fungicide, horticultural oil and a strong insecticide to kill any bugs, mites and disease spores that may be on the plants. The leaves are the factory that make the plant grow, but because you want to slow the plant's growth for a few weeks, you must remove all of the leaves that remain on the canes after pruning.

In a few weeks, when your plants begin to grow again, start a regular fertilizing and spray regimen to keep plants strong and insect, mite and disease free. The fungicides, miticides and insecticides you buy will determine your spray frequency. Generally, the more expensive products require less frequent spraying.

Roses need lots of food to chew on, so you can fertilize as often as weekly, if your plants are growing well. Water, of course, is the most important element in growing great roses. If your drainage is good, you can water nearly every day that the sun shines. In sandy southern soils, roses must be watered daily.

New roses will be available at your garden center or will arrive by mail at the proper planting time in your pan of the country, so order with confidence. This spring seems like a great time to make a new rose bed for all those wonderful new varieties!

--Article by Ann Hooper

Phone Primary Products at 800.841.6630 for all your rose care needs.