by benten on October 29th, 2010

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How do I maintain small rose bushes?

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Answers. 3 helpful answers below.

by TonieMoral on October 29th, 2010
trim your hedge weekly....zzzzzzzziiiiiing!
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- Schwiiiinnnnnggggg!
  
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  by SandraSandboxes Has a Loony Cat on October 29th, 2010
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by debbiebanks99 on October 30th, 2010
Triple 8 8 8 plant food it a fertilizer put it around the bush and water real good you see the difference in a few weeks.you get it from the co op don't put a whole lot use your judgement its good for all plants and flowers just water well.
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by Athrael on October 29th, 2010
Food, water, occasional selective pruning.

Roses require 'rose food', food that is aimed at promoting health of stem and leaf while also promoting larger, healthier blooms.

This: http://www.dianeseeds.com/gardening/fertilizer.html is a 'natural' rose food, I use a similar recipe using fish emulsion in a liquid form over powdered.

Pruning is often not done correctly. I see too many folk use a hedge trimmer to cut their roses back, roses need to be carefully pruned in order to encourage branching and growth in the right direction. The smaller the rose bush, the more work you need to do in order to maintain shape and health.

I personally prefer large rose bushes. We have several Lincoln Red Rose 'trees'. The bushes are still bushes but stand over 6 feet tall. Each season I spend a good deal of time selectively pruning the rose back to about half its bulk, promoting long stem rose buds. Yes it is time consuming when you are doing it, however in the long run you get beautiful roses.

On top of rose food I also use compost tea - I take a shovel full or two of compost, throw it in a 5 gallon bucket, fill the bucket with water and let it sit about a day, then I strain out the majority of the soils and water with the dark water that is left over.

Rambling roses, the time that put out smaller flowers and thinner/longer stems are not to be pruned. You dead head (remove dead flowers) and do remove dead stems, however you are supposed to trellis the rose or train it to grow up a post or something.

Rose trees are often normal rose bushes that have been cut back to one main 'trunk' and then is pruned and shaped, cutting off all suckers (stems that grow from the base).

So depending on the type of rose you have you have to make adjustments to how you trim it.

Mulching is a really good idea. All of my roses have 1 to 2 feet radius of mulch composed of half composted straw and wood chips about 4 inches deep that I annually remove and replace with fresh. Using Eucalyptus or cedar (or even a mix there of) will reduce the amount of insect pests at the base.
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