Roses

I suppose a few hundred thousand words have been written already about roses. Well, I'm not going to repeat all that. If you want to know all the nitty-gritty of growing roses, I'd recommend that you buy some of those words. I'm just going to tell you what works in my yard.

I have three roses: an everblooming Floribunda red rose, named Europenea, on the south side, a yellow rose on the east side; and a pink rose, named Sexy Rexy, on the north side. They all get the recommended six hours of sun each day -- if possible, place your roses so they receive sunlight early in the day rather than the almost too-hot afternoon sun. Roses are deciduous. Their leaves range in color from bronze-red to olive and near-chartreuse to dark green. Leaf texture may be smooth or rough. Roses need good air movement, which helps the dew and rain to dry quickly, discouraging disease problems.

This year I'm trying a new fertilizer. It's Schultz 10-12-12 concentrated liquid. Just one/third of a cap will give you two gallons of fertilized water, which really takes care of all three roses. I fertilized the roses on a regular basis in the spring, but now it's too hot. I won't fertilize again until this fall.

I love my roses, but they can sometimes be too much trouble, like last year when the red rose was inflicted with blackspot. We've had so much rain lately and it's so stifling outside that I expect blackspot to show up anytime now. I've tried spraying for it, but have not been too successful. I just resign myself to the fact that I'm going to lose a lot of leaves and have leggy plants until I trim them back in the fall for next year's growth.

8/14/01 - Yesterday I moved the red rose from its pot to a spot on the east side, close to the yellow. I needed the pot for a dwarf poinciana I bought Saturday. In reading a book on pruning yesterday, however, I learned something I'd not heard of before. When pruning roses, cut at the beginning of the second five-leaf node instead of the first one. And, do cut at a 45 degree angle.