Still, there are four tasks that most gardeners will do in one form or another to resurrect hybrid roses and prepare them for summer blooms. Roses have a reputation for being challenging to grow, but the reality is that most will keep growing and blooming even when a gardener neglects them. But, proper early season steps can ensure that you’ll have fewer problems to navigate during the growing season. These spring rose care efforts should get your roses off to a good, healthy start for the season. In addition to pruning, fertilizing, and spraying, make sure your roses receive plenty of water, and monitor them regularly for signs of problems. The care you take in spring will reward you all through the growing season. In fact, the act of covering roses is not about protecting them from freezing, but rather it is intended to keep roses frozen until there is no longer any danger of the weather cycling back and forth from frost to thaw. Don’t uncover your roses until you’re sure that warm days will no longer be interrupted by freezing nights. In some colder growing zones, gardeners routinely cover up the entire rose bush with a cage or bags of dried leaves or straw. Remove the cages and the covering material about the time the spring tulips and daffodils have begun to bloom. Rake off the soil or mulch that was used to protect the graft union, and remove any debris or leaves that were used to insulate the ground. Exposing the graft union will allow you to spot any growth that sprouts from below. Stems that grow from below this point are from the wild rootstock and will not produce the prized blooms you’re after. In very cold growing zones, hybrid roses are often over-wintered by trimming and binding up the canes, digging a trench, bending the entire bush into the ground, and covering it with soil and mulch. If this was your winterizing method, now is the time to rake away the mulch, dig up the roses, and bend them upright. Tightly pack the soil around the roots to support the bush, but make sure to leave the graft union exposed. With rambling, climbing roses, the winterizing process involves laying the long canes out flat on the ground, pinning them down, and then heaping soil and mulch over them. In spring, carefully rake away the soil and mulch, unpin the canes, and secure them once more to the supporting fence or trellis. Using sharp pruners, cut back each cane in short segments until you remove all dead wood and reach the green, growing wood. How much old growth you remove will depend on the severity of the winter, but even if you cut back nearly to the level of the root graft, your rose will likely recover. Warm climates: Spring pruning in warm climates can start in January. Gardeners in areas that don’t necessarily freeze during the winter but still have a prolonged period of cold weather can prune according to the type of rose they are growing. Roses grown in areas with warm winters, like Florida and Southern California, don’t necessarily need to be pruned at all. But doing some thinning is advisable because you should always remove any diseased and dead wood. Another technique that gardeners in warm areas can try is to remove all the leaves from their rose bushes during spring pruning. This fools the rose into a brief period of dormancy and lets it start fresh for the season. Be sure to rake and remove all debris from the rose bed. Cold climates: Roses grown in areas that receive freezing winter temperatures should not be pruned until about April, or the canes could suffer more winter damage. Once the leaf buds begin to swell on the bush (usually around the time forsythia bushes start to bloom), it’s safe to prune your roses. Many rose gardeners also like to give their roses a handful (about 1/4 cup) of epsom salts at feeding time. Whether the extra dose of magnesium really benefits the plants has never been proven, but many experienced gardeners swear by it. If you prefer to mix your own rose food, you could balance ingredients such as:
1 cup cottonseed meal 1 cup bone meal or superphosphate 1/2 cup blood meal 1/4 cup epsom salts
Spread the mixture around the perimeter of the rose bush, at the drip line, gently scratch it into the soil, and water thoroughly.
