Help roses bloom for longer
Encouraging many more magnificent flowers to come this summer is amazingly easy. Here are seven simple ways to ensure success...
1 GIVE THEM SOME GRANULAR FOOD
Sprinkle a rose food such as Toprose Rose and Shrub Feed or Miracle-Gro Rose & Shrub Plant Food at the base of each bush growing in the ground. These are long-term foods that will supply nutrients for the next three months. High in potassium to encourage good-quality flowers, they also contain magnesium to help keep the leaves healthy and green for longer. Rose leaves that start to show a yellow veining are showing signs of magnesium deficiency and can drop prematurely if nothing is done. Apply the food at the rate stated on the packet and water in well.
2 GIVE ROSES IN POTS A TONIC TO BOOST THEM
Roses growing in pots need a lot more food than those in the ground, especially if they share the container with other plants. Feed with a quarter-strength liquid tomato food. Just mix it into the watering can each time you water the plants for the rest of summer and early autumn. Use a feed such as Tomorite with seaweed extract, which contains magnesium as well as being high in potassium to encourage better flowers and healthy growth. Place a saucer under the pot before you water, so that all the food reaches the plant and none gets washed away.
3 SEARCH OUT THE SUCKERS
Suckers, true to their name, will suck the life out of your roses and seriously reduce their flowering potential. The easiest way to identify a sucker is to look out for any shoots that are much lighter in colour than those of the rest of the bush, and also much duller, with no ‘shininess’ to them. These are suckers, growing from the roots rather than the bulky bit above the roots that the ‘true’ stems are growing from. Trace the sucker shoots back to the roots of the plant and – wearing gloves – rip them off. If you cut them off cleanly they’ll return.
4 SUMMER ‘PRUNE’ AS NEEDED
Snipping now can make your rose bush look better before the next flush of flowers. Roses often produce one stem on a bush that is at least twice as tall as all the others. When flowers have faded from the long shoot, chop it back to the uniform height. Don’t be afraid to cut back rather than deadhead roses if a plant is too tall and outgrowing its space. It’ll still rebloom, but you’ll just have to wait a bit longer than if you just deadheaded it.
5 WATER ROSES IN THE GROUND IN HOT SPELLS
It may seem obvious but it’s very easy to neglect roses growing in the ground in favour of those in pots. While roses that are three years old or more can quite justifiably be called ‘drought tolerant’ – although they’re rarely thought of this way – roses planted in the last couple of years will need extra water in dry spells for the next two to three months. Water when the ground is dry, giving each rose a bucket of water. Wait until the ground is dusty and dry again before giving them another drink.
6 TIE IN CLIMBERS
Climbing roses flower best when their stems are stretched out horizontally. Arm yourself with some soft string, cut into lengths around 15cm (6in) long and gently pull the stems out to their full horizontal length. Secure them with the string (but don’t tie them too tightly) at several points along the stem. This encourages lots of flowering sideshoots to develop all the way along.
7 SNIP OFF THE DEAD HEADS
This is the quickest way to get your roses to bloom again. You don’t have to bother with secateurs, you can just snap them off with your hands if you’re in a hurry or have hundreds of blooms to remove. Snipping them with snips or secateurs down to the nearest leaf will be neater though and avoids leaving brown ‘snags’ at the top of the stems. Also snapping off the deadheads by hand may unsettle the roots if you pull the stems too hard, so take care if you use this method.