Rose care 101 - A quick run down of my top tips for growing & caring for roses
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Whenever I post photos of my roses, I get lots of questions about rose care. I’m no expert, but I’ve learned a lot in the past few years, and I’m always happy to share what’s worked (and what hasn’t!) so here are my top tips for growing & caring for your garden roses.
Roses (especially newly planted ones) need at least 4-6 hours of direct sunlight a day.
Roses prefer direct watering (a hose pipe right at the roots) rather than a sprinkler. Roughly about 5 litres per rose a couple of times a week (more in summer & more often).
Deadhead (remove the old flower heads) often! And try to cut at a join (between the leaf and stem).
Feed your roses every 6ish weeks with a good rose food (I recommend and use Ludwigs Vigorosa).
Spray your roses every 2-4 weeks (I don’t do this often enough 🙈😅) with a good rose protector/insect spray. I use ludwigsroses Insect Spray.
Invest in a decent pair of gardening gloves to protect your hands. I also have a heavy duty elbow length pair for pruning, which really makes things easy and saves my poor hands and arms from those sharp thorns.
My favourite place to buy roses...ludwigsroses for sure.
Roses are actually incredibly hardy, and often need very little care. Give newly planted roses a chance (at least a season or two!) to really settle before worrying if you’re no good at roses. It often takes roses a year or two to really come into their own. And if they don’t look happy, you can always move them (this is called transplanting). If you are going to transplant a rose, try and do this in Winter while the rose is dormant.
Let me know if you have any other questions! I’m always happy to talk roses. Leave me a comment below and I will get back to you.
