Answers to your rose questions!
Scroll down or select & click from the following topics.
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Have A Question About Roses?
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Q. When do I fertilize my roses?
Answer The first fertilizer treatment should be in April right after spring pruning.
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Q. When is the best time to plant roses?
Answer The best time to plant roses in the Kansas City area is in the spring.
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Q. What is the difference between own root and grafted roses?
Answer The difference is in the structure of the plant.
Q. How deep do I plant grafted roses?
Answer In the mid-western region, you should plant the graft 2-3 inches BELOW the soil level.
Q. When is the best time to transplant a rose from one part of the garden to another? Answer The best time to dig and move a rose is when it is dormant.
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Pruning & Deadheading |
Q. When should I prune my roses?
Answer The best time to prune is right when the bush starts to put out new leaves in the spring
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Q. How do I prune my rose bush?
Answer Here are the basic steps for spring pruning
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Q. What is the biggest pruning mistake?
Answer The biggest mistake is not pruning the bush back hard enough!
Here are two documents from the American Rose Society with further details on pruning. |
Q. Do I need to deadhead roses?
Answer Deadheading is optional, but it will cause the plant to re-bloom sooner
Here is a document from the American Rose Society about deadheading. |
Q. When should I stop deadheading in the fall?
Answer Stop deadheading at the end of August so the plants can begin to go dormant for winter. Q. My roses had a tough winter and look almost dead. There is only signs of life and new leaves emerging at the very base of the plant. How can I save it? Answer Roses can tolerate very hard pruning in the spring after a hard winter. Cut off all the stems down to where you see new growth. You will be rewarded with new growth and flowers about 6 weeks after pruning. |
Watering Roses |
Q. How do I water my roses?
Answer Roses need more water than many garden plants to keep them healthy and blooming all summer. Roses need about 1 inch of water each week
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Other Questions |
Q. How do you tell the difference between weed killer leaf damage and rose rosette disease symptoms?
Answer Weed killers can cause distorted growth, but it is different from the symptoms of rose rosette disease.
If you are not sure, cut off the affected stems and wait to see new growth.
Learn More About You can also take some photos and email them to our Ask a Rosarian e-mail hotline, and we will try to help you figure out what is wrong with your plant. |
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Q. I have had a hot cocoa rose bush for three years that has always had rust colored blooms. This spring when the buds began to open they were not the beautiful rust color! They bush was covered with red flowers. Could this be from us putting coffee grounds in the soil? Thank you for your help. -- Lisa
Answer
Coffee grounds just add some organic matter to the soil, they can not affect the color of your roses! What happened is that your rose was a grafted plant, with the Hot Cocoa plant on top, grafted to a different rose on the bottom for a stronger root stock. The bottom plant is called Dr. Huey, and it is a dark red climbing rose that is not very pretty on its own, but makes good root stock. Over this past, nasty winter, the Hot Cocoa part died. So what you are seeing is the Dr. Huey part taking over. Unless you love it, you should dig it up and start over with a new Hot Cocoa or rose of your choice. This time when you plant it, be sure that the grafted part (a thick knob with green sprouts on the top and a short stalk with roots at the bottom) is planted three inches BELOW the soil level. This will protect it from winter damage. This page, Getting Started, on our website, describes how to plant a grafted rose.
Q. Help! Something is eating my rose leaves. They eat the green part but leave the brown veins behind. It looks like stained glass windows. Or, sometimes there are big holes chewed out of the leaves between the veins.
Answer
This damage is caused by rose slugs. Little green larvae of the sawfly. They like the tender green tissue but can't chew the tougher veins. Learn more by visiting this page, Rose Insect Pests, on our website; see the rose slug section.
Answer
Coffee grounds just add some organic matter to the soil, they can not affect the color of your roses! What happened is that your rose was a grafted plant, with the Hot Cocoa plant on top, grafted to a different rose on the bottom for a stronger root stock. The bottom plant is called Dr. Huey, and it is a dark red climbing rose that is not very pretty on its own, but makes good root stock. Over this past, nasty winter, the Hot Cocoa part died. So what you are seeing is the Dr. Huey part taking over. Unless you love it, you should dig it up and start over with a new Hot Cocoa or rose of your choice. This time when you plant it, be sure that the grafted part (a thick knob with green sprouts on the top and a short stalk with roots at the bottom) is planted three inches BELOW the soil level. This will protect it from winter damage. This page, Getting Started, on our website, describes how to plant a grafted rose.
Q. Help! Something is eating my rose leaves. They eat the green part but leave the brown veins behind. It looks like stained glass windows. Or, sometimes there are big holes chewed out of the leaves between the veins.
Answer
This damage is caused by rose slugs. Little green larvae of the sawfly. They like the tender green tissue but can't chew the tougher veins. Learn more by visiting this page, Rose Insect Pests, on our website; see the rose slug section.