New to Roses in my garden in Southern California...?

Question

I just moved into a new rental home with a backyard full of roses. I am wondering how do I care for them?? Water, fertilizer, pruning??? My thumb is not of the green variety and I am totally new to this - alot of advice (or where to find advice online) would really help!!

Answer 1

I've been growing roses for 20 years now and I have found that they are among the easiest plants to grow and the most rewarding. There are 3 things you need to keep in mind to have a beautiful and lush rose garden and that is Selection, Water/feeding, and Pruning.

(Just skip the selection part since you are just looking to take care of the roses on your rental. However, if you think you will ever be interested in selecting and growing your own roses then be sure to check it out.)

Selection is important in that there are roses that are very disease prone and there are roses that are not. Hybrid Teas are an example of disease prone roses that give the grower nothing but trouble when it come to fungus not to mention the fact that they have been grafted and can lose their graft easily. They also tend to be short lived. Then there are the Old roses, Hybrid musks, English, Hardy, and Heirloom roses that have been bred to resist disease and have been grown from their own roots which means no graft to fall off. They are also very long lived. Here are two of my favorite web sites for these roses:
http://www.heirloomroses.com/cgi/browse....
http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/
Also, I just learned about a selection of roses from another Yahoo answerer called "Earthkind". Supposedly you don't have to do anything to these roses. No fertilizer, no chemical pesticides or fungicides and they flourish. Here is that site:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/earth...

Watering/Feeding:
The most important thing to remember here is that roses hate to get wet so remember to water early in the morning and only at the base. Newly planted roses need water every day for the first 2 weeks and then you can cut back to once a week, but make it a nice big drink. Feeding is also important, but stay away from Miricle-Gro for roses and any other perennial. It's only good for annuals. Roses really love manure mixed into the top layers of their soil and they also love fish emulsion. They just explode with that stuff.

Pruning:
There are two types of pruning and both are necessary to beautiful roses. Here are detailed instructions for pruning:

General Pruning: You do this to remove any dead or dying canes or spent flowers.
You need to pick a set of five leaves, but not necessarily the first set. Pick a set of five that are pointing outward because that will be the direction of a new cane and flowers. If you choose one pointing inward then your canes can cross and will cause other problems. Cut the cane at an angle like this (/) about 1/4" above the five leaf set. It is okay to do this with each cane and especially if the cane is dying. It is also okay to do this throughout the growing season because it promotes new growth.

Autumn Pruning: Any time between the first freeze of Autumn and the last freeze of winter you can seriously prune your rose down to about 2 feet. This will create a fuller, lusher plant for the new season. Once again you will want to cut at an angle. However, instead of cutting above a five leaf set, this time you will want to cut right above a node which will resemble a small, reddish, slightly pointed bump on the cane. Like the five leaf set, make sure the node is pointing outward.

Here are a couple of sites that will help you with pruning if you are still not sure how to do it.
http://www.bayeradvanced.com/article/how-to-prune-hybrid-tea-roses.html?source=google
Video from Expert Village on how to prune a rose:
http://homegarden.expertvillage.com/videos/deadheading-roses.htm

Good Luck

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Don't overwater. Prune carefully and spray as needed