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Are you planning to grow roses and need a little help with the planting, soil and care of them? I can help. First of all, I would recommend planting your roses in the fall, especially in most of New England and the central states. Roses that are planted in the spring just do not have the time to make growth and become very well established before the hot weather stops this vigorous growth.
If you plan to plant a shrub rose now this can be easily done with very little knowledge or care and it will do pretty well, but the garden roses are another matter. For some reason planting garden roses seems to be a mysterious task. I also think that the success of your roses depends largely on your plants, but we will assume that you have purchased quality plants. You will also need to have the best soil possible.
Roses need sunshine, but they do better if they are partly shaded, especially during the higher heat of the afternoons. The hot sun can cause the colors of your blooms to fade very quickly and cause the blooms to wilt. The excessive amount of moisture through leaves will actually retard the growth in many cases. When you are growing roses in a really hot part of the summer and they are in direct sun, which might be the case in the southern parts of the country, the roses can actually go dormant from the heat.
If possible try to plant your roses so that trees, buildings or even tall shrus will provide a windbreak so that the winds don't blow the blooms off the plants.
Your tree roots can grow very far and every few years you might want to dig down near the edges of your rose garden and cut off the tree roots so they won't use up the moisture and the plant food from your roses.
Roses will be tolerant of a wide range of soil conditions, but they much prefer a slightly acidic soil. Usually in western states the soils tend to be more alkaline and in eastern states they are more acidic.
A heavy clay loam soil is considered ideal because this type of soil can hold moisture, but any good garden soil will certainly grow wonderful roses. You can also adapt your soil if the clay is too heavy or sandy. If your soil is heavy in clay, you should dig your rose bed l8 inches deep and then refill with about one third rotted manure compost added to the clay that you have removed. You might also spade in about five pounds of lime for each l00 square feet, and add to that a wheelbarrow load of coarse sand or ashes, therefore making the heavy clay soil a more porous soil. You could work in five pounds of 4-8-4 garden soil a few days after preparing the soil for planting.
If you have sandy soil you can improve this soil by removing about two feet of the sand and putting in few inches of clay or clay loam before refilling it with a mix of two-thirds sand and one-third peat, compost, manure or other humus. You can also try adding three or four inches of humus spaded in with fertilizer and work the bed to a depth of about l4 inches.
When your roses arrive, plant them as soon as possible. Most nurseries pack dormant plants so well they can stay in the box for several days, but open the box and make sure that the packing material around them is moist, sprinkling with water and planting them as soon as possible if they are starting to dry out. If you can't plant within a week, heel in the plants by placing them in a trench and covering with soil.
Most of the time your roses will arrive from nurseries already pruned. If not it is best to cut back the canes of bedding roses to about six inches and the climbers to l8 inches. Be sure to cut off any dead or decayed roots. The fresh cuts will send out new rootlets soon.
Make the hole that you plant the rose in large enough to take the plant without crowding; about l5 inches wide and one foot deep (vertical sides) is about right. Be sure to put the swelling at the base of the plant where it was budded to set level with the ground and don't cover any branches when planting. Spread out the roots, put the soil in very carefully, working along the roots, and don't leave any open spaces. Then continue to add soil and tamp firmly until the hole is nearly filled, then water thoroughly. Let that water soak away, then finish filling the hole with soil without tamping. Mound up the soil around the plant about five to six inches as this will prevent the tops from drying out until the roots can make sufficient sap. Wait about a week or so then you'll see leaf buds beginning to grow. Then you can level off the soil.
Following these hints on the soil planting of garden roses will yield many years of enjoyment watching your beautiful blooms.
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