It’s that time of year again when Spring is in the air and the flowers all start to bloom.  Who doesn’t love a beautiful Summer rose in all its glory.  The rose is probably the most loved flower in the garden.  However, caring for your roses may be a bit perplexing.  There are some stressful conditions that may keep your roses from blooming and looking their best.  Today, we’re going to talk about how to care for your roses and what to do if you find something’s amiss.

Easy Care Tips For The Summer Rose

Roses, just like any other flower, require the proper conditions if you want them to bloom and grow healthy for years to come.  The most common issues when trying to care for roses are food, water, pests, and disease.   Let’s talk about each of these conditions and what you should do if discover a problem.

Food

The soil is food for your roses.  Roses are known as “heavy-feeders” and that means they use much of the soil’s nutrients.  However, that also means they will produce bunches of blossoms.  So what should you do when your roses use up all their food from the soil?  You feed them!  OK, but how exactly do you do that?  You need to fertilize them.

• Make sure you water the soil thoroughly before adding liquid fertilizer.  If you don’t, the roses will soak up the fertilizer too quickly and it will burn their leaves.
• You should never use liquid chemical fertilizers.  The chemical liquid fertilizers are the ones that cause the most leaf burn and leaf drop.
• Fertilize the soil and it will feed your roses.  Remember what we said about the soil is the source of food for your roses?

Water

Roses need at least one inch of rain each week.  That comes up to about one gallon of water for each plant.  If it hasn’t rained, you’ll need to water your roses.  The best way to water a rose is by using a soaker hose that allows the water to slowly saturate the soil.

Water also helps fertilize your roses by moving the nutrients from the soil to the plant.  It’s important to keep your roses properly watered; otherwise, they will become stressed by the heat and that will allow more of a chance for insects and disease to set in.

Pests

The most common pest problem, especially during the mid-summer when there hasn’t been much rain, is the aphid.  Aphids love the new growth on a rose and will feed on your new rose petals sucking the life right out of them.

To combat those pesky little aphids you’ll need to do several things.

• Make sure your roses are receiving plenty of water to keep them healthy.
• Add ladybugs to your garden once every two weeks or so at least through mid-summer.  Ladybugs are wonderful little aphid eaters and do a great job of getting rid of them within two to three days.
• If the aphids didn’t do the trick, you may have to use some insecticidal soaps – they won’t hurt bees, fish or humans but they do kill off most soft-bodied insects.

Disease

The best thing you can do to avoid rose diseases is to choose a rose variety that’s less susceptible to disease, plant them in the right spot and give them plenty of food and water.

• Always plant your roses in the sun and in a spot that has good airflow.
• If your roses end up with a disease, buy an organic spray for them – most organic sprays are made of minerals and are widely available at your local garden center.

Roses make a perfect gift and are well-loved by most everyone.  Additionally, roses are a great way to say “I Love You!”  If you would prefer to leave the flowers in your garden on the plant so you can continue to enjoy their beauty, why not head on over to Schaaf Floral in Minneapolis, MN or go to their website at SchaafFloral.com and check out their wide variety of flower arrangements.

The Ruby Nights Bouquet is a stunning array of red, pink and lavender roses, is nicely adorned and they come in an exquisite red vase.   This lovely rose arrangement would make a great gift and is something that would be fondly remembered for a very long time.