New house, need help with perrenial and rose bush question..?

Question

In the fall we moved into our new house which has a huge back yard that has a large flower garden that has not been cared for in a very long time. The realator said they were all perenials but had no idea what kind. The only plant I know for sure is a huge rose bush that desperately needs pruning.

My first question is should I prune now or should I wait until???

The second one isabout the ground covering. How do I tell what to get rid of and what to keep. Or should I just rake around the stems and cover it with mulch. i have never really had a yard of my own and know very little about gardening but I would like to work with what i have got because all my neighbors say the yard was beautiful about 3 years ago.

Answer 1

If you are in the North or North east you can still prune but midwest or South It's a little late to prune, you might kill the rose but you can cut all the dead stems and rose hips off.
For the ground cover, just rake it. You need to see what spring will bring before you do anything to the ground cover.
If you like what comes up, then fertilize and trim
if you don't like it, then just pull it up and replace with something you do like.
I plant bulbs (tulips, daffodils and gladiolas) in the winter so they come up in spring and then when they are ready to dig up in the late summer i replace with annuals like marigolds and dahlias.
If you have perennials they are probably chrysanthemums or something of that nature which come back every year on their own. I dont like them so i dont have them but many people do.

Answer 2

Rose bush .... I would give it a good pruning, cut it down by about one third. When you have good leaves and the beginning rose buds watch for aphids. They are tiny green bugs that appear on the buds and the undersides of the leaves. They suck! You can apply insecticide to get rid of them. Your local nursery can help you with this.
Ground cover and perennials ..... rake them to clean them up and see what they turn into. If you still like them by Autumn, keep them, or if you hate them, dig them up. Talking to your neighbors is also a good idea!

Answer 3

You could ask one of your neighbors to walk through with you and i.d. some of the plants. You can also post pictures to a website and then come back here and ask us what each plant is!