How do you grow roses?

Roses are super easy to grow! Find a sunny spot in your yard to plant them, water weekly, deadhead old blooms, and, for best results, follow my simple spring/summer/fall feed program below for healthy, gorgeous roses.

Where should you plant roses?

Roses need a LOT of sun. They’ll never thrive in a damp, shady spot in your yard. Most rose varieties need at least six hours of sunshine per day and they prefer well-drained soil. Certain roses are bred to be super cold hardy and some are bred to thrive in hot, southern climates so you should be able to easily find a rose that does well in your area. Roses can live decades under the right conditions.

How tall do roses get?

That completely depends on the type of rose! You can get dwarf roses that only grow 1-2 feet tall, climbing roses that reach for the sky at a whopping 15 feet tall, and everything in between. You can even find groundcover roses! The majority of roses grow between 3-5 feet tall and vary wildly on how wide they get. Luckily every tag on every rose will tell you that information.

How do you plant roses?

You can buy bareroot roses or buy them in a gallon container. Bareroot roses look like twigs – not nearly as exciting as a gallon rose bush with blooms – but in my experience, they yield stronger rose bushes. I will buy roses either way though! For the latter, dig a hole twice as wide as the plant, plop it in, and fill in the hole with good soil. Don’t bury the plant too deep. So easy!

Soak your bareroot in a bucket of water for at least twelve hours or up to three days. Dig a hole 18 inches deep and 2 feet wide and mound good soil up in the hole. (If you choose to plant your rose in a pot, use a plastic or fiberglass pot with holes in the bottom.)

Set the rose on the mound of soil so that it rests comfortably with the roots spread around. Fill hole partially with water to settle the soil and top off with more soil.

How often should you water roses?

Water roses deeply once a week. An irrigation system is best, but I just use a hose to water roses at the base. Do not use a sprinkler. Wet foliage can lead to disease. Water in the morning in case you do get any splashes on the foliage. The heat of the day will dry the leaves out, so the plant isn’t wet overnight.

How do you deadhead roses?

Most people just want to cut the blooms off but the best way to deadhead tired blooms is to cut about ¼” above a five-leaflet set, leaving at least two sets of leaves left on the stem. Cut at a 45-degree angle towards the center of the bush for the best shape.

Note: some rose varieties self deadhead and don’t need any help in this department!

Do roses need fertilizer?

Roses will be much stronger with fertilizer. I follow Jackson and Perkins‘ super simple feed program:

Rose Dynamite in the Spring: Use a time release rose fertilizer in the spring to start the growing season off right. Rose Dynamite works great and just needs to be sprinkled at the base of your rose when the first leaves appear in early spring. Amazon affiliate link here.

Do roses get diseases?

They can, yes. My main concern here in the south is blackspot, which is quite ugly and kills the foliage. It’s usually brought on by damp conditions but is easily treatable. Look for roses that are disease resistant.

Give roses enough space in the garden – they are healthier when they have good air flow! – and follow my easy fertilizer program to set your roses up for success. Healthy roses are easy roses to grow, which is why it’s so important to plant them in the sunniest spot in your yard.

When should you prune roses?

Valentine’s Day! I’m only slightly kidding. You want to prune in mid-February to prepare for the growing season. Be ruthless when pruning your roses: cut back 2/3 of the plant, always at a 45-degree angle towards the center of the plant. Remove any canes that cross, leaving the strongest canes to thrive.

Should I buy floribunda or hybrid tea roses?

That’s up to you! I love and grow both. Hybrid tea roses are renowned for their stunning classic rose bloom shape and long stems whereas floribunda roses grow tons of (usually smaller) blooms on the same stem, but often treat you to an explosion of blooms all season long.

Don’t forget to follow @therosetable on social media. I post tons of pictures and stories about all of my roses!

Do roses only bloom once?

There’s not a single rose in my garden that only blooms once, though I live in sunny Texas. My growing season here is very long. I usually have roses from April through December, though the end of the summer sees very few blooms.

What do roses look like in the winter?

Not great! Dormant roses look like twigs. That’s okay. They come roaring back in the spring and, as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Savvy gardeners will plan accordingly and pair roses with other plants that can shine and detract the eye away from roses when they’re dormant. Also, justice for winter gardens! It’s okay to rest for part of the year. It’s literally part of nature.

Love Roses? Then you’ve got to check out my Rose Table merch! I have rose hoodies, rose tanktops, rose mugs – I even have canvas prints of some of my roses.

How do you protect roses in a freeze?

Roses in the ground will be in freezing conditions! They go dormant in the winter but they’ll wake up again in the spring. You do, however, want to move container roses in the garage during a hard freeze.

How many kinds of roses are there?

There are hundreds of varieties of roses and literally tens of thousands of hybrids. I plan on growing roses my whole life and I’m sure I won’t even come close to growing them all!

How many colors of roses exist?

Roses come in all sorts of colors! You can find red, pink, yellow, white, purple, lavender, coral and orange roses in a variety of shades. You can even get bleeding roses, where the middle of the rose is a different color than the outer petals. My gosh, I love roses!