Caring For Rose Bushes

Caring For Rose Bushes

Rose bushes produce some of the best formed flowers of the season as the temperatures cool.  Keep deadheading your roses to encourage more flowers right up until the end of the season.

Some roses (like the hardy rugosa types) do produce attractive rose seeds called rose "hips".  These seeds form after the flower finishes and start out green, and turn orange and red and remain showy all winter long.  The hips can be cut and used for holiday and winter decoration later in the season.

Do not fertilize your roses after July as you do not want to push new growth too late in the season.  No more fertilizer until spring.

Also important to remember do not trim your rose bushes in the fall, but wait until spring for best results. 

Winter protection for all roses in colder regions should not be done until Thanksgiving time or after you have seen a few hard frosts.  Skip the rose cones, but do pile up a nice 8-12 inch mound of mulch around your canes remembering not to prune in fall, but wait until spring.

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