Roses, The Garden Grand Dame

By Jos Van Hage

Roses are a beautiful addition to any landscape and the list of hardy roses for our Prince George climate has greatly increased over the past several years. The sub-arctic, Hansa, Explorer, and Morden types are some of the varieties that are zone 3 or lower which are hardy for our area. These are all easy to grow and bloom for many weeks throughout the summer.

There are gardeners that like to grow the large ‘Tea Roses’ which are not hardy for here and these need to be mulched in and covered with a protective cover over the winter months in order for them to come back next spring.

Roses are easy to grow and do not need a lot of maintenance. Plant them in a warm sunny location in a well draining loam type soil that has organic compost mixed in with it.

Rose plants can be bothered by powdery mildew, blackspot and other fungal diseases which are prevented by making sure that there is enough air circulation around the plant so you want to make sure that plants are widely spaced. You also want to make sure that you do not get moisture on the foliage so water the plant at soil level.

To keep roses growing well they should be watered more often than many of the other flowering shrubs as they do not like to go dry. They should also be fertilized on a weekly basis with a well balanced rose fertilizer until the first week of August which after that you want the rose to slow down on the growing so that it gets ready for winter.

To get a high flower production you should remove the old finished flowers as they appear. Trim the finished flowers off just above the second leaf from the flower stem as this is where the new stem will come from. Do this until mid August which is when you leave the old flowers on so that they can form rose hips which tells the plant to get ready for winter.

You also want to check the plant on a weekly basis for any pests or disease so that you can control the problem from the onset. If you see a problem the ‘Rose Dust’ is a good product to use as it contains a fungicide and pesticide.

Roses are pruned in the fall and in the spring. In late September prune off ½ of the new growth and then in the spring finish off the pruning by doing the ‘fine tune’ pruning. Remove any dead, damaged, or diseased branches and any branch that is touching or crossing another branch. You want to keep the inside of the plant open so that there is good air circulation so you want the growth to grow towards the outside. This is done by always cutting above an outward facing bud.

Not all roses need to be pruned each spring as the ‘Persian Yellow’ is not pruned because it blooms on the second year growth so to prune it would be cutting off the flowers. Climbing roses are also not pruned as you want them to grow tall.

Roses add to the landscape year round as they show green growth in spring, bloom in summer, turn red in fall and have decorative rose hips throughout the winter.

It is never too late to plant a rose in the yard.

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