When your roses are lush with green healthy leaves and beautiful fresh and fragrant blooms, not only do they make you happy, but you can tell that they are happy and healthy too. Your roses thank you in flowers and tell you in blooms that you are doing a great job! Actually, your roses are speaking to you all the time and here is what they are saying:

 VISIT ME OFTEN I like to see you in the garden often. Nothing makes me happier than admirers, and also someone to keep a watchful eye out for me and catch problems early.

 PLANT ME IN THE SUN Trees are really great but I cannot bear to be planted under or too close to trees. They are bigger than me and they rob me of my fair share of the sun, and also my food and water. I also don’t like tree leaves dropping all over me.

FRESH BEGINNINGS Like you, I like to start the New Year with a fresh beginning. I also like a nice open center. Please prune me, take out the dead wood and clean my surroundings. Look at me, see how I like to grow and prune me according to my variety and my needs. Oh, and please use sharp by-pass pruners. Anvil pruners and dull blades just crush me.

FEED ME OFTEN  I bloomed for you, now feed me. If you skip feeding me, don’t feel guilty and overcompensate by feeding me too much. You will burn my leaves. If you are feeding me but I look sickly, feed the soil with organics and adjust the soil pH to 6.5 so nutrients are available to me.

WATER ME To perform my best, I do need water. Yes, succulents don’t need as much water, but they don’t bloom or smell wonderful! I really like drip irrigation as I mostly prefer to keep my leaves dry. It only takes 7 hours of damp leaves for blackspot spores and 2-4 hours for rust spores to grow on my leaves. If you are using sprinklers, check them. Make sure I am getting the water you think I am getting.

DO WASH ME OFF FROM TIME TO TIME My leaves do like getting sprayed with water  after the dry, dusty Santa Ana winds. I also like a blast of water when aphids and spider mites are sucking at me. Try to time my showers when it is sunny and I can dry off quickly.

WHEN MY LEAVES ARE YELLOW I may be getting too much or too little water. Check the soil and adjust the water accordingly. If my leaves are yellow with green veins, give me iron.

A CLEAN GARDEN IS A HEALTHY GARDEN Please rake and pick up fallen leaves and petals. You will be helping me stay healthy by ridding the garden of fungi and pests.

DON”T SPRAY ME INDISCRIMINATELY I like beneficial insects and I encourage them to visit me with my fragrance, colorful blooms and  bright stamens. Don’t kill them off with sprays. They are your friends and mine.

DEADHEAD ME I want to re-bIoom again and again for you from March through to December, so please dead-head me. Make your cuts at an outward-facing bud-eye.

NO ONE IS PERFECT  Sometimes the weather conditions will give me botrytis, powdery mildew, rust or blackspot. If I get powdery mildew it is because of cool damp nights and warm sunny days. You can help by spraying affected new growth with water in the morning. If I get rust or blackspot, cut it out so the rest of my leaves don’t catch disease. If my blooms get botrytis, cut them off and get them out of the garden. Make sure I am getting enough sun and not planted too close to other plants. I need plenty of light and air.

THE RIGHT FRIENDS I look good with plant companions and plant diversity is good for garden health, but my friends need to respect my personal space and not shade me, crowd me, steal my water or my food.

BE PATIENT WITH ME It may take a few years for me to get fully established especially if I am a climber. Baby me a little when I am newly planted and don’t cut really long stems in my first year.

MULCH I really do like a warm thick blanket of mulch! It helps keep the soil moist, keeps the weeds away and improves the soil.

REMEMBER MY NAME When you bring me home, write my name in your garden journal so when my tag falls off, I won’t become just another nameless rose.

Everyone loves the beauty and fragrance of roses. Just remember they are not difficult to grow when you are attentive and just listen to them!