In the spring gardeners have an almost overwhelming urge to start work in the rose garden. However, in cold regions including the temperate Central States, this ambition should be withheld until the danger of a hard freeze is past.

Here are some rose gardening tips to help you along. When caring for roses, on established rose plants the first job is to remove the winter protection… mounds of soil from around the base of each bush. This soil should be carried away and not spread on top of the rose bed.

Correct pruning of roses is also important. On floribunda and grandiflora types of roses all that is necessary is to remove dead wood and small twiggy growth. All dead and winter-killed wood should be pruned back to where the canes have light-green centers instead of brown centers typical of dead wood.

In addition to this pruning, hybrid teas should be cut back to about one-half their height. The cut is best when made just above a good outside eye. On standard climbing roses all that is necessary in early spring is to prune out all dead wood. Other pruning can be done after the major flowering period in June is past. This consists of removing some of the older canes at ground level in order to encourage new growth on which the best flowers will be formed the following year.

Cultivate about the bushes and feed with a good rose fertilizer. The bushes respond quicker to the fertilizer if it is watered in. Repeat fertilizer application about once each month starting in April and discontinuing about September 1.

New rose beds should be carefully prepared. Select a site away from trees or shrubs so that their roots do not rob the roses of moisture and nutrients. The area should be well drained and should receive at least six hours of daily sun. Prepare the area by spading to a depth of 18 inches and incorporating with the soil some peat-moss and well-rotted manure or rotted compost. In the root area of every bush mix with the soil two handfuls each of superphosphate and bonemeal.

Upon receipt of bare-root roses (plants without soil), examine them carefully and prune off any broken canes or roots. It is a good idea to submerge the roots in a large bucket of water for a couple of hours just prior to planting. If roses are purchased in pots remove them carefully so as not to disturb the roots or the soil.

Space bushes about 18 to 22 inches apart and dig holes 12 to 14 inches deep and 16 inches in diameter. Make a pyramid-shape mound of soil in each hole. Place the roots carefully about this mound and adjust the depth of the plant by raising or lowering the mound. A good rule to follow is to plant so that the graft or bud union is about 2 inches below the surface of the soil. Rose plants from pots are set at the same depth or slightly deeper than they were in the pot. Return enough of the soil to the hole so that the roots have about a 2-inch coverage. Press soil firmly against the roots with your hands and then fill the hole with water. After the water is absorbed fill the hole with the remaining soil.

Protect newly set bushes by mounding soil from another part of the garden at least 10-inches high around the canes. After new rose shoots begin to grow, gradually remove all this additional soil. Roses from pots usually do not require this protection.

When caring for roses it is almost essential to follow a good program of spraying or dusting with insecticides and fungicides to keep them healthy and free of diseases. Start regular weekly applications as soon as leaves appear in spring. A good general rose spray combining insecticide and fungicide is usually very satisfactory. However, at certain times of the year it may be necessary to use a special spray or dust. Spray in the evenings after the heat of the day is past but early enough so the leaves will dry before the night dew appears. Be sure to make a complete coverage of both sides of all leaves.

In dry weather the rose beds should be watered thoroughly at least once each week. Use a water wand or let the water run slowly out of the end of the hose under the bushes.

Remove full-blown or spent flowers every day. Cut them 1/4 inch above a good eye which is located above a five-leaflet leaf. Burn or dispose of these spent blooms away from the rose garden.

Roses are a source of much enjoyment and a very healthful hobby. But like all queens, the queen of flowers requires attention and care and will respond in proportion to the attention you lavish upon her. Following the basics and the rose flower growing tips outlined here will ensure she does just that.

Rose Care Tips

Additional Rose Basics

10 Smart Tips For Tending Roses

‘Growing and tending roses really isn’t very hard to do!’ If you make it your business to follow the most basic rules, your roses can and will be healthy and beautiful for a very long time.

How To Find Different Rose Varieties

In your town, there is probably a group of people who love tending roses and who call themselves the “Rose Society” or something like that. Since these people are experts when it comes to planting roses, you should talk to them.

Growing Roses Organically: Two Essential Steps

To some, growing roses means endless spraying and coddling. The fact is, it can be done another way – a way that’s healthier for people, animals and the environment.

Growing And Preparing Roses With Helpful Rose Gardening Tips

You’ve probably seen pictures of other people’s magnificent rose gardens, but would you be able to produce such roses from your own gardening efforts?

Easy to Grow Roses – The Three Best Choices For Rose Gardening

Don’t worry, because there are several varieties of roses that are absolutely perfect for beginning rose gardeners. Let’s take a look at the three best easy to grow roses.

What Are Antique Roses And Why Might You Want to Grow Them?

Antique roses is a generic term for roses that came before modern roses. They are also sometimes called old garden roses or species roses and many of them are still very popular. As you may know, there are thousands of varieties.

How To Plant Bare-Root Roses

Get in on the bare-root rose rage. The most coveted roses are selling right now, but they don’t come in a pot. These roses come home with bare-naked roots completely soil free.

How To Plant And Prune Lifted Roses

Time is fast approaching to start working on your rose bushes. If you have plants that you are lifting and replanting, or purchasing plants from a nursery to plant, I hope you will find these tips helpful.

Information on Miniature Roses

In planting your miniature roses, you plant just like full size roses. Dig a hole the same depth as the pot the rose came in and about a foot wider. Carefully loosen the rose from the pot and remove while gently loosening the roots.

Four Rose Bushes

Roses are a demanding plant in terms of the care which needs to be provided, keeping them together helps attend them all together. That said, do not plant your rose bushes any closer than one ‘giant step’ in all directions.

Technorati Tags: basics, bushes, care, caring, climbing, diseases, for, prune, pruning, rose, roses, spring, tips, types, winter

Why FALL Planting?

Experienced gardeners prefer fall planting. Not for all plants, but for a great many that the beginner seldom thinks of setting out except in spring.

Unless you are in a very cold section of the country, roses planted in fall take hold better than do spring-set bushes. So do most fruit trees and bushes, other deciduous trees and shrubs and many evergreens. The majority of hardy perennials, too, respond best when moved in autumn rather than in spring.

Fall planting is advantageous to the gardener too. Over most of North America spring is short, its days all too crowded.

Despite carefully made plans and the best intentions, it is usually physically impossible to accomplish all the planting and other work that needs doing. This is true if you do the work yourself; it is so if you hire professional help.

 In the mad rush of spring, skilled Gardeners and nurserymen seem to be almost as scarce as the proverbial hen’s tooth, and if you succeed in corralling one (or more), chances are he will be so rushed that your planting may be done less carefully than had you employed him at a more leisurely season.

But plantwise, why is fall the best time to set out most material? The first point to recognize is that the operation we call planting is actually transplanting. It consists of moving a living plant from one place to another in such a fashion that it will become reestablished.

Such transplanting is an artificial disturbance. In nature it occurs rarely, as when a tornado or swollen stream rips a plant from its anchorage and sets it some place else, where it takes root. But these are freak accidents. Plants usually spend their entire lives in the place where nature propagated them.

Transplanting is analogous to an operation on a human being. Parts of the body are cut away, the physiological processes disturbed. Common sense dictates that an operation should he done at a time most favorable to the patient, at the beginning of a period when recuperation is likely to take place most rapidly and when no undue demands are expected to be made upon the patient’s energies. For most plants, fall meets these conditions best.

Let’s examine the reasons why this is so. The above-ground parts of a plant depend upon the roots for water and nutrients, and to find them, roots often travel much greater distances than ordinarily supposed. A lowly perennial may send some of its feeders down 2, 3 or even more feet, and the spread of these feeders almost invariably far exceeds that of the foliage. In the case of trees and shrubs, too, the underground parts usually occupy more space then the stems and leaves.

It follows that no matter how carefully transplanting is done, some roots are cut off and the plant’s ability to supply its stems and leaves with water and nutrients is temporarily reduced. In fall, with its shorter days, lower temperatures, less intense sunshine and in many cases normal loss of foliage, the demands for water and nutrients made by the tops of hardy plants are at a near minimum and decrease as day follows day. This is a significant factor.

Roots of fall transplants are able to continue growth long after top growth has ceased, because the ground beneath remains warm and moist even after the upper inch or two is frozen. Therefore, new roots, generate readily from the cut and broken ends of transplants, enabling them to rapidly re-establish their root systems.

Contrast this with conditions that prevail in spring. Then all factors that favor vigorous top growth (with its resulting heavier demands upon the roots) are at work. Days are lengthening, the sun strengthening. Winds are stealing water from every stem and leaf. And as the leaves increase in size and number, the demand for water and nutrients increases correspondingly.

Are there any disadvantages to fall planting? Yes, in some cases there’s danger of winterkilling. Winter is the crucial period for plants on the border-line of hardiness in any given locality, plants which are so close to being tender and winterkilled anyway that the root disturbance tips the balance against them.

For such plants spring transplanting is safer, because in order to survive the winter, these borderline plants need a fully established root system. Planted in spring, they have a whole growing season in which to re-root before being called upon to face the rigors of winter.

Transplanting done too late for the particular plant type may also result in winterkilling. In such cases there simply is not sufficient time for adequate rooting before the under soil becomes too cold.

Then, too, heaving (soil movement due to alternate freezing and thawing) can tear and break roots, and with smallish items, such as rock garden plants and perennials, this may cause so much damage that serious harm or death results. However, precautions can be taken to minimize this danger.

On the negative side, one other factor must be taken into account. Experience has proved that a few plants transplant better in spring (preferably late spring) than in fall. These include some subjects with more or less fleshy roots, such as magnolias and beeches. If you have any doubts about a particular plant, check with an experienced gardener.

The actual operation of transplanting is the same whether done in fall or spring. Only the details of after care differ. Regardless of season, the soil must be deeply and thoroughly prepared and should be in a crumbly rather than pasty condition.

Preparation ordinarily involves loosening the earth to a depth of 10 inches or more, mixing in a generous amount of organic matter (compost, leafmold, rotted manure, peatmoss or commercial humus) and some fertilizer.

In fall, use only slowly available fertilizers such as coarse bonemeal, pulverized sheep manure or prepared mixtures that have much of their nitrogen content in organic form. The quickly soluble, rapid-acting kinds are more advantageous in spring, for these serve chiefly to stimulate leaf growth, which is not of immediate importance in fall. For certain plants, some soils will need liming. And in some cases, the use of a synthetic soil conditioner may be advisable.

The details of preparing the soil depend upon the particular plants to be set out. In any case, see that the preparation is thorough and, if possible, have it completed well in advance of planting. This gives the earth time to settle somewhat and makes firm planting at the right depth easier.

If you must plant before the soil has settled sufficiently by itself, either tread it until moderately firm (while it is dry enough not to stick to the shoes) or give it a thorough soaking with the hose and then allow it to dry. Either treatment will settle it enough for planting.

The old admonition that it’s better to put a 10-cent plant in a dollar hole than a dollar plant in a 10-cent hole still holds. For every plant you install, make a hole sufficiently large to easily accommodate the ball of roots without crowding and to permit you to pack a liberal amount of good soil around the old roots to encourage growth of new ones.

This is especially important with trees, shrubs and evergreens planted where the entire surrounding soil is not specially prepared, as it usually is with herbaceous plants and closely set shrubs. For a moderate-sized shrub or tree, the role should be at least 2 feet wider than the spread of the roots… more if the soil is poorand more when big specimens are being moved.

One of the great advantages of fall planting is that purchased nursery stock is then newly dug. It has not been wintered in a nursery cellar or storage shed as have most spring-sold plants.

Take care when planting not to let the roots become dry. If the specimens are moved with a ball of soil, as evergreens always should be and larger trees and shrubs often are, be sure, not to break it.

Spread the roots of plants that are moved without a soil ball in the directions in which they run naturally and work good soil between them. Set the plants at the same depth or only very slightly deeper than they were previously. Firm the soil well, but do not ram it until it is as hard as a road. Unless rain is imminent, soak the soil immediately after planting and keep well watered.

Secure fall-planted trees firmly to stakes or guy wires to prevent winter storms from loosening or toppling them over. Deciduous shrubs rarely need staking, but it is often good to prune back or thin out some of the branches. Evergreens (both shrubs and trees) will appreciate a burlap screen if they are exposed to wind or strong winter sun.

Very important, too, is the subject of winter protection. For most plants, a mulch 1 or 2 inches deep (3 or 4 inches for evergreens) spread over the ground after it has frozen will delay frost penetration to greater depths and enable roots to grow for a longer period. A mulch will also reduce heaving.

Suitable materials are coarse compost, half-rotted leaves, manure, straw and peat-moss. A mulch of this type, however, is not practicable for ground-hugging plants such as strawberries and many rock garden subjects, which require a light covering of salt hay or evergreen branches. Perennials, too, prefer the latter type mulch.

Roses require a little different kind of winter protection. After the top inch of earth has frozen, bill the soil high around the bases of the stems to protect the lower buds, and fill the hollows between the hills with loose manure or some other mulch material.

Let’s take a look now at the best fall planting times for the different plant types. Evergreens should go in first. These have to support a crop of leaves all winter and so need plenty of time to develop ample roots. Deciduous trees and shrubs, excepting those few kinds that move better in spring, may be safely planted considerably later than evergreens. Put them in any time between the start of natural leaf fall and the first hard ground freeze.

Roses should be planted as soon as obtainable, and planting may continue until frost makes it impracticable. Perennials and biennials should be planted as soon as possible after the first killing frost to enable them to root well before the soil freezes.

Planting In Autumn

More Tips For Fall Gardening

How To Naturalize Spring-Flowering Bulbs

Of these, only spring-blooming bulbs absolutely must be planted in fall. This “now or never” push makes fall bulb planting an annual tradition in many households, where spending an hour or two each fall can reap colorful spring time bulbs.

Fall Work Makes Spring Planting Easier

Crisp autumn days make you want to drink hot chocolate and sit by a warming fire. I’ll join you, but first we have a few things to do to be ready for spring gardening. (Did you really think I was done giving you things to do?)

5 Tips for Fall Gardening

If you’re ready to take the organic gardening plunge, we have some great tips for you from the experts at Bonnie Plants, a green-gardening wholesaler in Union Springs, AL: Don’t be intimidated.

Fall Gardening Tasks

Pruning chores are easier in fall as the leaves drop. But be certain to only prune away dead or diseased wood – if you prune healthy wood, it will spur new growth that will become damaged by winter cold.

Technorati Tags: biennials, evergreens, fall, gardening, Perennials, planting, plants, roses, shrub, tips, transplanting, trees

Fall Flower And Gardening Checklist – Part 3

Before we wrap up this Fall Gardening Checklist series we wanted to give you a few more valuable and important tips. These are things you should also be preparing to take care of during the autumn and before the cold arrives.
 

VEGETABLE STORAGE
Beets, carrots, parsnips, potatoes (late) must be stored in a cool place. All except the potatoes could stay outdoors for a longer time by ridging soil over the rows in the garden. Other means of storage are pits dug in the ground and the vegetables covered with boards and hay. For small lots bushel baskets, or boxes submerged in the ground will do. Celery can be kept by covering with soil in the row. Cabbage is best dug and put in a cold cellar or pit.

Eggplant, peppers, and pumpkins must be stored where the temperature is mild. Tomatoes picked before frost and individually wrapped in newspaper will ripen in 2 weeks.

Radishes, lettuce, endive and other greens can be carried along in the garden for some time by covering each evening with cardboard, burlap, or the more enduring plastic sheeting.

COMPOST AND HUMUS
All but diseased and insect-infested material can be composted. Burn all questionable material.

Leaves can be put in a separate heap if there is space, or all materials mixed in one pile.

Begin with a bottom layer of coarse leaves, corn stalks, or dried stems. Next spread layer of the mixed materials 6 inches deep. Sprinkle a pound or more of any fertilizer, compost activator, or dried cow or chicken manure over 4×5 foot surface, then a thin layer of soil. Wet thoroughly.

Repeat layer by layer to build the pile. A 5 foot height is enough. The pile can be as long as desired. Keep the width to 6 feet. Mulching attachments for power tools are handy for fall work.

The humus supply in the soil is increased too, by sowing rye, or rye grass seed on areas left vacant by removal of crops in the garden. Three pounds per 1,000 square feet is ample. Rake the seed in, as in lawn making. Rolling is not necessary.

SOIL IMPROVEMENT
Before hard frost threatens, dig the soil and leave rough over winter. Where manure or compost is available, spread and dig in. Stiff soil is especially benefited. If soil needs lime, this is applied as ground, or pulverized limestone, 3 pounds per 100 square feet. It is merely spread over the surface after digging.

Soil on sloping ground must be covered to prevent washing. A cover crop of rye, a layer of compost, leaves, hay or the like will prevent erosion. Fall is a good time to dig in soil conditioners.

PROTECTION
In winter protection of outdoor hardy and semi-hardy plants, no covering is applied until all growth has ceased. Growth is ended by frost which opens tissue and prepares the plants for winter. Roses can be covered after several frosts, by mounding the soil up and around the base of the stems. Not all northern rose growers agree on covering, but I prefer it. The pink spirea (caryopteris), shrubs like the crape myrtle of the South, and those of similar tenderness are also covered.

The stems are tied loosely together with soft twine or burlap strips and wrapped with burlap. Where winters are severe, hay is used inside first, then burlap, or chicken wire surrounding the shrub. Fill with dry leaves and top with a piece of canvas. An inverted bushel basket stuffed with leaves is the best for low plants.

Climbing roses are protected where the winter temperatures go below zero. The stems are taken down from their sup-ports, tied together, laid on the ground and covered with 3 inches of soil.

It’s a practice in extremely cold sections to loosen the roots on one side and tip the whole plant over into a trench. No bending can be done when the stems are frozen. They will snap off. So do it early. Pansies and English daisies are covered with marsh (salt) hay.

EVERGREENS
These are protected in a different way and for a different reason. Exposed to winds, the leaves dry out, especially if the roots are in frozen soil. Protection consists in covering the root area with a mulch of leaves, and using a wind barrier of some sort. Burlap attached to stakes, branches of pines pushed into the ground, or smaller ones tied to several stems of the plants serve to break the wind.

PERENNIAL PROTECTION
Last to be covered are strawberries, hardy perennials, and rock garden plants. This is best done when ground is frozen. Covered while still soft, the plants will rot.

Soft crowned plants: delphinium, columbine, liatris, anchusa, are best covered with a cone of coal ashes, or 3 parts of soil mixed with one part of sand.

Others are covered with a light layer of marsh hay held in place with light twiggy branches. Provision must be made for water to drain off and not collect around the plants in prolonged wet weather.

Beds of spring flowering bulbs must also wait until they are thoroughly frozen before being covered else mice may harbor there for the winter.

SNOW PROTECTION
Bushy evergreens are, in regions of heavy snows, prone to injury when deep snow collects in the interior splitting them apart. Strips of burlap wound spirally around will give some protection. Tying the stems to each other in the interior is still better.

TREE PROTECTION
The stems of fruit trees, especially those newly planted, are in danger of having the bark peeled off by rabbits and mice during winter. Surround these with a band of close meshed chicken wire 2 feet high. Newly planted shade and flowering tree stems are wrapped with burlap strips, or the special craft paper used by tree men. This is protection against frost injury and the action of freezing winds.

Be prepared and ready to go with your fall flower gardening protection plans. You will be thankful you did come next spring!

How To Protect Plants From Frost & Bugs

More Fall Flower Garden Protection Tips

Mulching: Spread Organic Materials In Fall To Protect Plants

Mulching: Spread Organic Materials In Fall To Protect Plants, Improve Soil. Mulching is the simplest and most advantageous thing you can do for your garden. And it needn’t be pricey — whatever of the prizewinning mulching materials. Leaves: Collect leaves in the fall. Chop with a lawnmower or shredder.

How to Protect Plants in the Winter: Tips for Protecting Plants

Wrapping Plants in Cloth Will Also Help Protect Them During the Winter. Using old blankets, burlap sacks, sheets, towels or other thick fabric will help to protect tender plants from frosts and high winds.

How To Protect Perennials And Roses For Winter

But the sun will get lower on the horizon and the leaves will turn red and fall from the trees. Winter is inevitable. It’s time to plan and prepare before that first frost. Protect. Gardens need protection in the winter. In the north, the snow cover acts as a thermal blanket. But it isn’t the cold that kills the plant or shrub. It’s the drying winds and the freezing and thawing.

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Fall Flower And Gardening Checklist – Part 1 

When Autumn comes, you have a hundred ways, to improve your garden… its looks, health, its prospects for next spring. Cool weather makes it easy to get things done: there is less rush than when you are are doing spring chores. Proper care now makes everthing easier in the spring. Here is a checklist of all gardening ideas to make it easy to be sure that everything is done. Take out your pen or pencil and mark the ideas that fit your garden, just as you make a list of things to order for fall planting.

THE LATE FLOWERS
Dahlias, chrysanthemums and roses need water now, but no fertilizer. Overfeeding may result in soft plants that may be injured by winter freezing. Dahlia roots may become too soft for storage. Dust them or spray with sulphur or an all purpose chemical to prevent mildew. Stake and tie tall plants against September winds.

LILIES
Madonna, canadense, martagon, superbum and the Washington lily, all known as base rooting, are planted in early autumn. The other, or stem-rooting kinds, are planted either in late autumn or early spring. Base rooting kinds start growing immediately. Cover the bulb top with no more than 3 inches of soil. The soil must be well drained.

PEONIES, IRIS, OTHER PERENNIALS
Peonies are also lifted, divided and replanted in autumn. The whole plant is carefully raised, the soil washed out from the roots and the plant separated into sections… each section or piece with no less than three eyes (buds); five to seven are better for there is more chance of flowering the next year. Peonies planted in fall get a good spring start.

Peonies need a rich deep soil. They should last for 25 years. Dried cattle manure, 4 parts, mixed with 1 part bone meal and worked in before planting will help, if the regular rotted manure is not available. When planting bury the buds no more than 1 inch deep. Peonies must have full sunshine for best results.

Roots of bleedingheart are handled similarly. Exceptionally brittle, they are more easily separated if allowed to dry somewhat in the sun.

Iris clumps can be, separated too, at this time. If the sections are not too small, three to four roots (rhizomes), they will flower next year.

Perennials of all kinds can be lifted, divided and replanted October to early November. Prepare the soil and incorporate manure or compost with bone meal and superphosphate before replanting.

THE HARVEST: BULBS AND ROOTS
Cut the tops of dahlias, cannas, and tuberous begonias soon after the first frost. Leave 6 inches of a stub for handling dahlias. Begonias and cannas are stored with all possible soil on the roots to keep them from drying out. Ordinary cellar conditions are suitable.

Dahlia roots must dry slowly. Leave in a place out of the sun. When the soil dries on the roots, clean them off, reduce the old stem stub still more and store in peatmoss, ashes, or sawdust in a cool cellar or garage where they will not freeze.

Gladiolus can be lifted before frost, or as soon as the leaves turn brown. Dig with the leaves attached. Dry as soon as possible, then cut off the leaves, remove the paper-like covering from around the bulbs (corms) and, before storing, dust with an organic dust. Discard spotted and diseased corms, and the old shrivelled corms. Store in shallow boxes or mesh onion bags. Old nylon stockings do well too.

Fall Activities For Your Garden

Gardening In The Fall

Frankie’s Early Fall Gardening

Garden mum – treat as annual. Fall is the time to spring into gardening!! Seriously most think spring is the best time to garden but fall is just as good and in my mind a better time to garden.

Fall Gardening Tips

Fall Gardening Tips. Here are a few garden tips I’ve found online…I’m not really very good at gardening (inside or out!), so I can use all the hints I can get! Bring in your houseplants that have summered outdoors.

Any Southerners Doing A Fall Garden?

I am! I have seeds started for Mustard Greens, Collard Greens, Carrots, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Onions, Peppers, and Tomatoes.

Fall Gardening Tips

I’m always looking for new ways and ideas to extend the garden season. So I asked Willi if she would be willing to write a guest post on my blog on fall gardening tips.

Fall Garden Clean-Up

I know a lot of people pack their gardening gloves away at the end of summer. Our attention turns toward the holiday season and then the long haul of winter. But I love gardening in the fall.

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