Stop to Smell the Roses

Yesterday, I attended a workshop at my local nursery.  It was super fun and I learned a lot!  The workshop was all about roses; how to plant them and care for them.

Before attending the workshop, I was nervous to prune the existing roses in our yard and really had no idea what they needed to flourish.  Afterwards, I was filled with excitement and confidence to get outside and get to work!  Today, I'll share a few of the things I learned at the workshop that I found super helpful.

1)  When pruning roses, make cuts at a 45 degree angle.  

2)  Try to make the cut so it faces out from the center of the plant.

3)  You want to create a pretty open center.

4)  Snip away any canes that are skinnier than a #2 pencil.  That way, more of the plant's resources can be devoted to the stronger canes.  Plus, when a big bloom forms on the end of a skinnier cane, it may break due to the weight of the flower.

5)  The speaker at the workshop recommended feeding your roses with an organic fertilizer twice a year.  Once in the early spring and again about two months later.  Organic fertilizer has all the main basic food that your roses need, plus micro-nutrients that are often missing from synthetic fertilizer.

6)  Don't be scared to prune!  Pruning promotes growth and will actually end up increasing the number of blooms your plants will produce. 

This is what my brand new roses look like now:

They look bare now, but soon they will be big and beautiful!  I bought my 4 new roses bushes right after the workshop, so I had the added benefit of the rose pro speaker hanging around.  

He said that you actually want to cut down the roses you buy at a nursery before planting them.  They come into the nurseries with a more full look, mainly for the aesthetic appeal.  However, you want to cut down to the main, strong canes and use the 45 degree angle rule to promote the best growth in your plants.  The rose pro was nice enough to demonstrate on a couple of my new plants!

I'm excited to see the plants grow and brighten up our yard with colorful blooms.  The roses I bought were...

Grande Dame (x1):

Sugar Moon (x1):

Easy Does It (x2):

More updates to come as we start to see changes!