I discovered yesterday that the big grey sticks hanging out by my front door aren't just big grey sticks. They are rose bushes just now sprouting leaves.

I've never had the pleasure of caring for roses before and am at a loss. What can I do to keep them healthy, growing and blooming?

How often should I water them? Do they need fertilizer? Etc?

-- Jackie (jackie@jackie.nu), March 10, 2000

Answers

Hopefully some rose expert will answer this, because I am absolutely NOT a rose expert. But I can tell you a few things.

First, if they were big gray sticks, that probably means someone pruned them earlier in the year, which is good. If they're just getting leaves now, then you should fertilize them. You can probably buy fertilizer specifically for roses, or just use a balanced fertilizer like Miracle Grow. I fertilize my roses once a month or so.

If you want to raise roses organically, you'll need a good organic gardening guide, because it's not really very easy, and your success may be entirely dependent upon the type of roses you have.

Most roses need regular water, especially in a hot place like Texas. You don't want the soil to get soggy because roses are notorious for fungus and disease problems, but I wouldn't let it dry out too much between waterings, either. Keep an eye out for things like aphids and weird blotches on the leaves.

Do you have any little old ladies in your neighborhood who have roses? If so, make friends with them. They probably know exactly what kind of roses you have, because they saw them last year and the year before. And the kinds of little old ladies who like to grow roses usually love to give you advice on how to grow them, too. They'll know how often to water in your climate, what pests are a problem, when to prune, etc.

-- Beth (beth@xeney.com), March 10, 2000.

Hope that they are the old fashioned English roses. They are the absolute best and require no, to little care. If they aren't (and you will be able to tell by the shape of the flower and smell), fertilize now and just keep an eye out for bugs (like aphids. they love the fresh new growth on roses). If the soil isn't very good, then there really isn't much you can do. My father in law has spent close to 1,000buckeroos on roses but his soil is poor and *I* think he overmulches them but ya know. Y

-- Renee (justme@justme.org), March 10, 2000.

Hope that they are the old fashioned English roses. They are the absolute best and require no, to little care. If they aren't (and you will be able to tell by the shape of the flower and smell), fertilize now and just keep an eye out for bugs (like aphids. they love the fresh new growth on roses). If the soil isn't very good, then there really isn't much you can do. My father in law has spent close to 1,000buckeroos on roses but his soil is poor and *I* think he overmulches them but ya know. YMMV

Since they are already in the ground and established, you shouldn't have to worry too much about watering unless you are in a drought. Oh and go ahead and water them 2 days after you fertilize them, this washes the salt that the fertilizer contains, away.

The number one rule when watering is to make very sure that you soak down to the roots. Don't just water the top 3 inches of s

-- Renee (justme@justme.org), March 10, 2000.

Heh. Well, Renee, remember that a drought in North Carolina is a normal summer (or even a particularly wet one!) in the southwest. We have summers where it never rains, not once, and it's not humid and it's really hot, so the soil cracks around your roses. And we don't even call that a drought as long as we got a lot of rain during the winter!

But I can't remember where Jackie lives in Texas. She might not live in the really dry part.

I have three big rose bushes, and they're all a little different. One is a hybrid tea that was there when I moved in. My feeling about that one is that if it starts getting fussy, getting diseases and bugs and all that, I'll yank it out and throw it away. So far I just prune it and fertilize it once a month, and since it's outside my sprinkler system, I give it a good soak once a week or whenever the violas and alyssum underneath it start to look thirsty.

The other two I planted myself, and they are on the other side of the yard. One is a David Austen English rose, and the other is an antique musk rose. Both are in big tubs right now because I can't decide where to put them, and they don't get much attention from me ... I fertilize them a couple of times a year, and they get watered when everything else gets watered, and I prune them and deadhead. And that's it. If the hybrid tea dies, I'll replace it with another one like these, specially chosen for non-fussiness.

I have to admit that the hybrid tea is really pretty. The roses are medium sized and range from a deep yellow to a pale cream. I found the tag for it in the soil underneath, but I can't remember the name. It wasn't one I'd heard of before.

I have another rose question for Renee, but I'll start a new topic for that ...

-- Beth (beth@xeney.com), March 10, 2000.

Now that you've lived with your new roses for a few months which ones do you think worked out best? Any favorites?

-- Lucy Huntzinger (huntzinger@mindspring.com), August 06, 2000.

None of them. It's too damn hot here right now. No matter how much I mulch or water, the roses blow almost immediately, and some of them have had a lot of leaf burn.

I lost two: Mister Lincoln (or the imposter that pretended to be Mister Lincoln -- and by the way, Jackson and Perkins never responded to my complaint that they sent me the wrong rose, no more business for them, and Olympiad. That bummed me out. They are right next to each other so I'm guessing it's a soil problem. However, Veteran's Honor (my other red rose) is so beautiful that I'll probably replace the other two with two Vet's Honor. I was told VH had no scent, but I was misinformed. It's a beautiful rose.

My David Austins hate the heat. They'll do better in spring and fall. They all took forever to bloom -- Pat Austin is just blooming for the first time today.

Frankly, the hybrid teas have been far more satisfactory than the English or old garden roses, because they tend to take the heat better. Just Joey is my new favorite rose, surpassing even my beloved Belle Story because it keeps blooming even when it's over 100 degrees. Royal Amethyst looked like it was going to burn to a crisp here during its first heat wave, but it weathered the last one much better. The flowers burn very quickly, but the leaves didn't burn this time.

I'm hoping my roses do better after they've had a year to establish themselves. I do have good healthy foliage, if you discount the effects of the leaf cutter bees. Which you can't, because man, do they make the plants look ugly.

I may be over my rose mania.

-- Beth (beth@xeney.com), August 06, 2000.