Looking for a few simple tips and tricks to get your rose bushes blooming more than ever this summer?
Rose bushes are wonderful for adding elegance, beauty and interest to the landscape, especially when they are loaded with buds and blooms! Not only can their wide array of colorful petals add tremendous flair to flowerbeds, their strong floral scent adds to their allure as well.
For many gardeners, however, keeping their rose bushes healthy and flowering strong can be challenging. Weather, pests and disease and fungal issues can certainly all affect a rose bush’s performance. But more often than not, the reason a rose bush struggles to bloom comes down to 3 simple and very controllable aspects of care.
The good news is that all three care tips are not only simple to do, but also take little time to perform. With that in mind, here is a look at 3 easy tasks that can have your rose bushes blooming bigger and stronger than ever this year!
How To Keep Rose Bushes Blooming – 3 Simple Tips To More Flowers!
#1) The Importance Of Deadheading – How To Keep Rose Bushes Blooming
If there is one big mistake many rose growers make with their roses, it’s not removing old, decaying blooms quickly. By leaving old blooms in place, it can slow down and even stop the bush from blooming more.
Deadheading, which is the practice of removing dying or dead blooms from a plant, is important for better blooming for many annuals and perennials. But it’s even more important than ever for rose bushes and their ability to bloom more. See: How To Deadhead Annuals & Perennials
When rose blooms are allowed to stay on the bush beyond their prime, it causes the plant to burn valuable energy. Energy that should be going to creating new blooms.
As long as old blooms remain attached to the plant, they continue to use and burn nutrients. The bush will continue to send additional power to the fading bloom in hopes of repairing it.
Unfortunately, no amount of energy will ever fix a dying bloom – so the effort simply wastes resources and takes energy away from the bush. And for a rose bush, that loss of power is critical when it comes to trying to create new blooms.
How To Remove Spent Blooms From A Rose Bush
To remove a dying bloom correctly from a rose bush, cut the bloom off right below where it attaches to the main stem or branch. This will stop any and all energy the plant is burning to try to heal the old bloom. Once that occurs, the plant will then refocus on producing new blooms.
You can also lightly prune rose bushes during the summer months. This helps keep the plant in shape, and allows it more energy for blooming by removing excess stems and foliage. As with any plant, also take time to cut and remove any damaged leaves or stems – or any that show early signs of black spot, rust or other disease and mold issues.
Fall Deadheading – How To Keep Rose Bushes Blooming
As Autumn settles in, about three to four weeks before your typical first fall frost date, you will want to stop deadheading any spent blooms from your rose bush.
This will actually help protect the bush and prepare it for the upcoming winter. By allowing the roses to remain on the plant in the fall, it forces the plant to start heading into dormancy instead of trying to still create more new blooms.
Unfortunately, deadheading too late in the season leaves the plant vulnerable to winter damage. Deadheading will make the plant try to keep producing new stems and blooms. Not only is that new tender growth highly susceptible to freezing out, it also takes energy away from the plant it needs for winter.
#2) The Importance Of Fertilizing – How To Keep Rose Bushes Blooming
Equally important to deadheading is fertilizing your rose bush on a regular basis. This plays a huge role in getting the plant to produce additional blooms and flowers. It does this by replacing the energy the plant lost from its previous blooming cycle.
Rose bushes require a tremendous amount of nutrients from the soil to bloom. Because of this, they can often deplete the resources they need over time. Especially if your roses have been growing in the same location for multiple years.
Just because you deadhead your roses to conserve energy, it doesn’t mean your soil still has enough energy left to produce more blooms. But by giving it the right dose of fertilizer, you can jump start the blooming process all over again.
Unlike shrub and climbing roses that can be fertilized in the spring, more traditional roses such as Tea roses, Grandiflora, Floribunda and miniature roses all require more frequent energy boosts to power blooms. For these roses, you should be fertilizing every 3 to 4 weeks throughout the spring and summer.
The Best Fertilizers For Rose Bushes
There are several great options for powering your roses. Organically speaking, compost tea and worm casting tea are two of the best liquid fertilizing options. They tend to be less potent, so if using these options, fertilize every two weeks.
If you are looking for a commercial granular fertilizer option, it is best to select a product specifically designed for roses. Rose Tone is one of our favorites for this. It has just a bit more nitrogen, which roses love, but not too much to overpower the bush. Product Affiliate Link: Espoma Organic Rose-Tone 4-3-2 Organic Fertilizer
In addition to regular fertilizer feedings, spent coffee grounds can be a secret weapon for powering more blooms. Spent coffee grounds contain nitrogen along with other trace minerals that are highly beneficial to roses. Simply scatter three to four tablespoons of spent grounds once a month around each rose bush.
#3) Watering For Better Blooms! How To Keep Rose Bushes Blooming
Roses need and use water to keep their stems and foliage healthy. But more importantly, they also need water to produce buds and blooms. Without enough moisture in the soil during the hot and dry summer months, they will start to slow bloom production. And if they get dry enough, they will stop it altogether.
For proper health and flower production, your roses need to be getting one to two inches of water per week. If you are not getting that in rainfall, hand watering is a must.
Water slowly so that it can soak down into the soil eight to twelve inches deep. Unfortunately, when you dump a half-gallon or a full gallon of water on your plant all at once, most of it will run off and away from the root zone. But by watering slowly and intermittently, it can soak down in.
Don’t Water From Above…
One thing you don’t want to do is water your rose bushes from overhead. When water hits and remains on foliage and blooms, it can leave the plants more susceptible to disease and mold. Spraying from overhead can also knock off future buds and young blooms.
Instead, water low at the base of your bush. With roses, it is better to water less frequently, but with deeper watering rather than daily shallow watering. Watering every day will keep roots near the surface, and not get them to drive deeper where they are more protected and have more nutrients to power them.
Here is keeping your roses blooming all summer long – and to enjoying their beauty more than ever this year!
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