The Rose is deservedly the most prized of garden plants. It is of easy culture and suited to a wide variety of soils, with exquisitely shaped, often fragrant and delightfully coloured blooms, which continue flowering over a long period. Most garden species were initially collected by explorers and varieties obtained from crossing these have been derived from many growers and sources. Apart from their value as garden plants the petals have been candied, made into jam, used for Rose Water, sugar, rosettes and of course oil and perfume.

The outcome of your planting efforts when it comes to roses will ultimately depend on where you plant them. Roses are as demanding as they are beautiful so you need to be careful in selecting the right place to plant them. When selecting a plot, be sure that your choice has all the characteristics below.

• A site that gets lots of sunlight; too much shade can lead to dry roots and toxic dripping
• A site that is protected from cold winds
• A site or soil that has excellent drainage because roses do not like to feel their feet wet all the time
• A site with healthy soil; if necessary add fertilizer like horse manure or well-rotted farm

Planting Roses with Bare Roots

Planting roses depends also on which stage you have acquired them. If you are planting bare root roses - which are what you usually end up with when you order them online or have them delivered from a

Other essential steps that you have to take when planting bare root roses are as follows.

• Dig a hole that is large and deep enough for all its roots to spread out as comfortably as it want
• Add compost and bone meal or anything equivalent
• When back-filling the hole, make sure to shake the plant once in a while so that all its roots have sufficient access to soil
• Soil must be treaded gently to prevent the ground from being too tight or compact
• Give the ground a good watering if it is too dry
• If you are caring for various species of roses, it would do you good if you place a weatherproof label bearing the name of its exact species; this will prevent you from mixing up care or maintenance requirements of each species

Planting Roses in Containers

The steps for planting roses in containers are pretty much the same with what have been listed above. It would be better, however, if you also keep the tips below in mind.

• Limit damage or any disturbance to the plant’s root ball as much as possible; any damage may inhibit the root ball’s ability to take in nutrients
• Add a bit of compost near the root ball to aid its growth
• Roses planted in containers are usually planted in the months of summer or spring; if you are following the same pattern, make sure that you deep water them regularly and especially when you are experiencing hotter than usual weather
• Label accordingly

Feeding Roses

This is probably one of the easiest activities you have to perform when growing roses. Just make sure that you are using feed produced or by a well-known and respected manufacturer to ensure maximum results.

When feeding, just place a small amount of feed around the plant’s base before gently forking it in. The feeding requirements will depend mostly on the species and where you are growing it.

After the first flush of growth, giving your roses another feeding can ensure more blooms in the next flush. Avoid feeding them in the last days of summer, though. This will only cause them to try blooming as spring or winter comes in, and whatever blooms that do come out will only be damaged by frost.

Pruning

Finally, it is time to learn about what many consider as the most difficult stage of growing roses. Pruning activities, however, have been made easy thanks to the laborious tests made by the Royal National Rose Society.

Now, you only have to do the following steps, and your roses are guaranteed to come out beautiful as ever afterwards.

• Shrub or bush roses must be pruned to half its height during spring; all dead wood and other debris must also be removed from the site
• Climbing roses will also benefit from spring pruning, with the height dependent on your own preferences; again, all dead wood must be removed from the site
• Rambling roses must be pruned immediately after their flowering