Ready to plant and grow roses in your garden? Our Growing Guide for Roses will get you started—with advice on how to take care of roses and prune roses, too. We also share our recommendations on the best types of roses to grow, as well as tips on controlling rose pests such as Japanese beetles.
Rose bushes come in a variety of forms, from climbing roses to miniature rose plants, blooming mainly in early summer and fall. One way to group roses into classes is according to their date of introduction:
- Old roses—also called “old-fashioned roses” and “heirloom roses”—are those introduced prior to 1867. These are the lush, invariably fragrant roses found in old masters’ paintings. There are hundreds of old rose varieties—whose hardiness varies—providing choices for both warm and mild climates.
- Modern hybrid roses, introduced after 1867, are sturdy, long-blooming, extremely hardy and disease-resistant, and bred for color, shape, size, and fragrance. The hybrid tea roses, with one large flower on a long cutting stem, are one of the most popular hybrids.
- Species, or wild roses, are those that have been growing wild for many thousands of years. These wild roses have been adapted to modern gardens and usually bloom from spring to early summer. Most species roses have single blossoms.
Choosing from all the possibilities can be a daunting task. Take your time and wander through nurseries to enjoy the beauty of roses!
Reader Comments
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roses not blooming
Hi Katherine, You may have hit the reason. One of the most common reasons for roses not blooming well is the use of high nitrogen fertilizers or the over use of them. This will result in few to no blooms or small blooms and lots of foliage. Use a well balanced food or fertilizer when feeding your roses so that all of the rose’s nutritional needs are met.
Another issue can be high temperatures and heat and the resulting stress. Keep an eye on the soil moisture around your roses and make sure it’s moist several inches down.
Finally, there are bigger issues that could be at stake from insect damage to disease; give your roses bushes and good look for any damage. If not, it’s probably related to fertilizing or stress/heat/watering.
Transplanting a mature rose bush
Last week I transplanted a mature rose bush and it is looking bad. Some of the leaves have turned yellow. Help please.
Knock-out roses
Hi
My husband died leaving me with 75 hybrid tea roses to take care of.
Because of my declining health, I called our Master Gardener Club and gave the roses away to our Rose Club.
My question. All the roses were Hybrid Tea roses, except one, and all of different colours. He had one knock-out Bush.
They were all dug up properly.
8 roses have decided grow back and flourish. And they appear to be Knock-out roses and all are Red.
How do I get knockout roses from hybrid tea roots?? I miss the long stemmed roses. And red was my late husbands favorite. Please help me figure this out.
Thank you. De from Sweet Home Alabama
Stray Cats!
I have four beautiful rose bushes that are my pride & joy! I spend every day tending them & just enjoying them in general. My issue, however, is that there are ALOT of cats in my neighborhood that find my flower beds a perfect litter box! I have tried everything, that I know of, to keep those pests out! I've gotten to the point that I'm about to bury razor wire under the mulch! Nothing that I try deterrs them & their owners won't keep them inside! PLEASE HELP!! ANY ideas are appreciated!
Cat repellant
Cats hate vinegar. Try shallow saucers of vinegar, & slugs hate it too.
Cat and roses
Cat don't like black pepper I had a cat and a plant in the house he was using it for litter box to I put pepper around the base of the plant
Stray cats
I read on Pinterest to keep cats away, stick plastic throw-away forks around in your garden. Stick the handle part in the ground.
Leaving the fork tines sticking up. Worth a try!
Fill plastic gallon (1/2
Fill plastic gallon (1/2 gallon) jugs with water, and set in places where cats are a nuisance. When cats rub up against the plastic jugs, it causes static... which cats do not like.
Cat poo
I had problems with a neighbor and her cats for ten years. I tried everything even predator urine, still I had no luck. Then I got a live trap and a camera. I caught the cat's and the neighbor letting them out. I took them to court and now I have a cat free garden. Good luck
Is it worth buying roses at the end of summer?
I've never grown roses but they're currently on sale at our local Lowes at an incredible discount. I want to give it a try. But are they worth buying now? Do I wait to plant them until next spring; May/June? What do I do with them until then? Do I keep them in my garage? Wrap them up? Should I water them? -until when? Please help!
Sickly rose bush
Hi this is my first year growing roses and I have 2. One is a knockout yellow rose bush and it is doing great and is absolutely beautiful. My other rose bush is a Chicago hope hybrid tea rose and just keeps getting worse and worse. I believe it has blackspot, leaves get dark spots that get bigger until they cover whole leaf and gets on the leaves all around it if I don't clip them off as soon as I start seeing the spots. I am using a sulfur based spray on both plants every 7 days and feed it MG for roses (1gallon each plant) every 7 days. It starts to look better then bad again, it's done this all spring/summer. I've had a few blooms which are beautiful but it keeps getting to be less blooms and a lot smaller than when I first purchased it. It'll be winter soon and I'm wondering if there's a way to fix it that I'm not doing? Would it be better to leave the sickly rose in the ground and mulch or dig it up/pot it and bring inside for the winter? I'd appreciate any help I'd really like it to make it but there's only couple stems left alive on it and they are pretty short.
Sorry it's a Chicago peace
Sorry it's a Chicago peace hybrid tea rose, not Chicago hope
Chicago Peace Rose has hope...
Hi, Heather, The name of this rose is as the reader notes below: Chicago Peace, not hope, Rose. Blackspot is the scourge of roses. It is a fungus, and care is a fairly regimented process. This publication suggests the steps in the procedure, as well as specific fungicides: http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0505/index2.tmpl You’ll notice that is from the Alabama cooperative extension service. While it should be helpful anywhere, you can consult a local service by clicking on your state here: https://www.almanac.com/content/cooperative-extension-services
You should decide how much time and effort you want to put into this plant, and if you decide not to go further, consider that it is always best to select rose varieties that are blackspot resistant. We hope this helps!
roses & deer
I don't have room to plant lavender by my roses to deter the deer but can place cut lavender branches all around the base of each. Will that be enough to deter the deer?
Lavender Deer Deterrent
The scent of cut lavender will have the same effect as that of the living plant. However, the scent will fade as the branches dry up, so you will have to replace them with fresh lavender regularly.
Hi i have never kept a flower
Hi i have never kept a flower like rose before this is my first time.and i know nothing how to take care of this in a right way.and im more worried on the place where i lived because it has no space where i can put the rose directly to the sun.and the rose is place in a small pot only when i bought this.please give me some advice thank you
light for roses
Roses can be grown in partial shade, about 3 or 4 hours of sunlight instead of 6 or more hours. Some types do better than others, though. In any case, if you have a spot that provides enough space for the type of rose that you have (did it come with a plant label? Often the label will tell you how high and wide it will grow, and if it is a shrub rose, trailing, or other), and at least some sunlight, then it is worth a try to grow roses there, if there is no other option. The plant may not bloom as much, and the blossoms may not be as large, but you might still be able to enjoy having your very own rose plant. Again, it will depend on the type of rose, and whether it is happy there in other respects, such as soil nutrients etc. I actually have a rose that gets very few hours of direct sunlight, and a yew bush always tries to grow over it; still, I usually get one or two flowers each year from the rose plant, even under such non-ideal conditions. For general rose care, please see the article above. Hope this helps!
Rose Clipping Doing well Please Advise
Hi, I have never kept roses before but recently (May) I was able to get a clipping from my grandparent's old house from a 30-year-old pink rose bush. I am not sure what variety the bus was usually about 4ft tall. Out of the clippings, I was able to get one to root and it is now doing quite well. I have it in a very large pot I think 40" because I live in an apartment in Boston and I want to be able to bring it in and keep it growing/blooming year round. What I am wondering is if anyone has any advice for boosting its growth while it is able to be on the porch with ample summer sun, and advice for once I move it in. I know that I won't get 5-6 hrs of sunlight during the NE winter, but I do have grow lights that I use for other plants during the off season. Any thoughts? And do you think I will see a bloom this year? It just really started growing fast with the heatwave it is currently about 13" tall.
Rose Clipping
Hi Tamara,
Rose bushes require about 1 inch of water per week during their growing period, while during the winter you should allow the soil to dry out to a depth of 1 inch between waterings. If you see a lack of blooms when the bush has grown more and begun to crowd the pot, it’s time to replant in a bigger pot. Roses can get by on 3 to 4 hours of sunlight a day, so don’t worry too much about providing extra light with a grow lamp. If you do decide to use one, make sure you’re consistent and don’t surprise the rose bush with light in the middle of the night. Keep the temperature below 75 degrees F during the day and above 40 degrees F at night.
Help with a rose bush that has gone uncared for for 20 years!
So, I recently moved back to my parents house in Maryland, just outside of D.C. and have been working on improving their back yard which at first had nothing but a tangled old rose bush and overgrown mulberry tree. I'm not an experienced gardener however,and pruning the rose bush has been the most daunting task. It has not been pruned, watered, fertilized or anything that I see you suggest here in at least 20 years possibly more. It does bloom early spring, but the majority of the blooms are tangled in the branches on the mulberry tree! How do I go about untangling this bush? It is now almost July is it ok to start pruning now? I also noticed some ivy growing around the base of the bush, is this killing it?
pruning a rose bush
No, do not prune now. Wait to prune in the spring. It’s not only the right time to prune a rose bush, but it will be a lot easier to prune when it’s not in growth mode! You want to prune after all flowering is done.
You’ll start with removing all dead and dying canes–entirely. These are the canes that look shriveled, dark brown, or black. And you’ll also remove all thin, weak canes that are smaller than a pencil in diameter. Start there!
If it’s been growing for this many years, don’t bother it now. In the spring, you’ll also want to clear away all suckers and any other plants at its base.
Why do roses go wild producing small dark red blooms?
How do I prevent roses from reverting to a wild rose with small dark red bloom
roses changing
We’re not sure what you mean by wild. What you may be seeing is that many roses are grafted, so the branches are one variety and the lower root system is a hardier rose. If those lower roots sprout branches, they may look like a different rose than the top branches. The variety that is very common is “Dr. Huey,” which is used for the lower rootstock and produces small, two-inch, dark red flowers as you describe! Those roses all probably started out with branches and blossoms of a different variety such as a less hardy tea rose. It’s just what happens with this variety. You may wish to try other varieties of roses if this bothers you. Also, avoid planting too shallowly.
roses
I lived in Wis. and had good luck with roses. (64 at one time) I now live on coast of the Gulf of Mexico in Tx. and don't know when to prune or how to take care of them? HELP
roses of Texas
We will let the rose experts handle this, and there are many in Texas. Here is a group in Houston: http://www.houstonrose.org/hrsconsl.htm Search for “rosarians, Texas” for more. You can also consult your local cooperative extension; find those in Texas here: http://www.almanac.com/content/cooperative-extension-services
We hope this helps!
Cutting roses for continuous blooms
Hi I live in Washington state west side & have 2 beautiful tong stemmed roses. They receive the good care you recommend & lots of sun in summer. Last year I picked the flowers to bring inside & they didn't bloom again all summer . I kept them fertilized & watered as usual, never had this problem before. Advice please . This year they have lots of buds & I would like to enjoy them all summer.
Roses bush problems
I have some of my bushes that are very skinny stalks and then there are some have very thick shoots what am I doing wrong
Please HELP keep a rose from spreading!
I have an heirloom rose bush from my great-grandmother that I can't keep contained. It shoots out from the roots and starts a new sprouts everywhere, up to six feet away from the main bush. How can I keep this rose from taking over my garden?
Spreading roots
In order to stop shrub to capture your whole garden...it is to be advised you should cut roots of ur shrub.be careful not to harm whole plant...only cut extra roots..
Help with Roses
My roses seem to look dead before they fully bloom. Any ideas?
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