Ideal place for planting roses

Roses are sun lovers and adapt more easily to a hot spot than a shady location. Choose a well-drained location with plenty of sunlight for planting rose. Repeat flowering roses need at six hours of full sun to produce abundant flowers.

Preparing Soil for Rose plants

Soil is the living environment that sustains the plants.  Adding organic matter in the form of compost, rotten manure, sea weed, shredded leaves, or peat moss will improve the structure of sandy, silty or heavy clay soils. A well-drained garden soil with good organic content is ideal for roses. Roses thrive in soils that are conditioned with plenty of organic matter and supplemented with organic fertilisers.

Before planting the roses, it is best to test the soil for pH measure. pH measure is the level of acidity or alkalinity in the soil. It is measure on a scale 1 to 14. Lowest number being the most acidic and the highest number most alkaline. 7 is the neutral. Roses grow best in slightly acidic soil with pH of about 6 to 6.5. Acidity of the soil can be reduced by adding lime or dolomite. Alkaline soils can be made acidic by adding granular agricultural sulphur. A good quality soil testing kit will come handy for testing the pH measure of your soil, for your home soil.

Planting roses

Rose plants may come as bare root, packaged or container grown. Each requires customised treatment while planting.

Planting bareroot plants

A good quality bareroot plant will have three or four stout canes and a healthy well branched root system. Canes should look smooth with a green or reddish colour and fresh white wood or pith showing where the tops of canes were pruned by the nursery. Dorman bareroot bushes arrived from Nursery are often wrapped in plastic, with a packing material such as moist sphagnum moss added to prevent drying.

After opening the package soak the roots in bucket water overnight or for several hours before planting. Prune off any broken canes or roots with sharp secateurs. Cut back the canes by about one- half of their length if needed. This ensures vigorous shoots from the crown.

Dig planting holes of about 60cm wide and 45cm deep. If the soil is not already prepared, discard a few shovels of soil and add some compost in the hole, back filling with the top soil. Set each budded plant with its bud union above the soil level. If you are living in a place where the winter is severe, keep the bud union 5 to 7cm below soil. Deep planting prevents the plants from severe frost. After filling the hole with soil irrigate thoroughly and fill soil again to make it firm.

How to plant container grown Rose plants?

Water the plants well before planting. Dig planting holes of about 60cm wide and 45cm deep. Make sure that planting hole is big enough to accommodate the size of the container. If the bed is not prepared add some compost in the hole. Remove the rose bushes from the container. Loosen the soil at the bottom of the root ball. Plant each rose with the top of the root ball at the same level as it was in the container. Fill in soil around the root ball and water well. Fill the soil to make it firm . Make a saucer around the plant with plant and water it again.  Use a balanced organic fertiliser to lightly fertilise the plant.

Planting packaged dormant Rose Bushes

They are planted in a similar way to bareroot plants. Remove from the packaging and soak in water for several hours or overnight.