Roses The Straight Scoop Parts - care of roses in autumn

Flower & Garden Magazine, Sept, 2001 by Ann Hooper

Since you've had such great success with your roses this season, you're probably already planning on adding a few more next season. Now is the time to prepare new rosebeds so the soil will be rich and friable and ready to plant in when the bare-root roses arrive in the spring. If your soil isn't quite as you'd like it to be, a good method for making the ultimate rosebed is to remove all the soil and make compost in the hole. If done properly, the garden waste you use now will be completely broken down into lovely rich soil at winter's end.

Dig all of the soil out of your new rosebed to a depth of 2 1/2 to 3 feet. (No one said that building a great bed isn't a lot of work!) To make compost in the hole, throw in a 4-inch layer of dead stuff, such as crisp fallen leaves, well-dried grass clippings and those weeds that you pulled a month ago which have turned brown and dead and dry. All of the material you add to your compost bed should be ground fairly small. If you don't have a chipper/shredder, run over it a few times with the lawnmower before you put it in the hole. This dried organic material provides carbon necessary for the breakdown of the compost.

Your second layer should be 4 inches of the soil you removed from the hole. Then add a dusting of compost activator, limestone or leftover lawn fertilizer that does not contain a weed killer. The next 4-inch layer should be green stuff, such as fresh grass clippings or fresh prunings from trees, shrubs, weeds or whatever. Again, chop up the big stuff with the lawnmower. Sprinkle this layer too, with limestone, compost activator or fertilizer.

Add another 4-inch layer of the soil you removed from the bed in the first place and then a 4-inch layer of manure. Cow, horse or chicken manure are all terrific. Your compost will break down without the manure if you don't have access to a good source, but it will take a longer time.

Put another layer of soil on top of the manure and continue to alternate layers until the hole is full. Then soak the pile with water. The pile will heat up almost immediately, and the elements will begin to break down. After a week, stir up the compost with a garden fork. The pile will heat up again, and after another week, the compost is almost complete. By spring, the soil will be perfect for planting!

This method is also great for making your regular compost. Good compost is a must for every garden, and all of your plants will benefit from a good top dressing with this rich, organic material.

Most important of all, enjoy every rose that blooms in your garden. Roses are a tree gift from heaven, even if you do have to work hard to coax them to perfection!

Ann Hooper grows more than 350 roses at her home in Reading, Massachusetts. She is an American Rose Society-certified consulting rosarian and the owner of Primary Products, a mail-order supplier of quality rose care products. While it is not her intention to present this article as an advertisement, she does sell many of the rose care products mentioned here. Phone 800.841.6630 for more information.