Roses

It’s been a bumper year for roses so far here in the Western Districts of Victoria. The blooms until now have mostly been big, lush, and beautiful.

After the first flush of flowers have died back the plant can look untidy so getting rid of the dead flowers is a big part of rose care, especially useful in keeping your garden looking its best.

Roses bushes are often putting on another growth spurt at this stage, so there will often be a new stem forming further back down the stem you are going to cut, behind the dead or dying flower. You can either cut back to these new growths when cutting off the dead flowers (otherwise known as ‘deadheading‘) or, depending on what shape you want to leave the plant in, you can cut back to a set of leaves further up the stem.

In the pictures I’ve provided the plant had a few long, arching stems left with fresh, new blooms so I didn’t want to cut the stems with the dead flowers back too hard. This would keep the plant in an even looking shape overall.

For this reason I cut the stem back to a set of leaves above a new stem which was forming. The purple mark shows where I decided to cut; the second picture shows what the stem looked like after being cut.

Some roses will have a second flowering later in the season, others won’t. When you buy a new rose it’s a good idea to check it’s flowering habit. I’m not sure which rose this one is so I’m not sure if it will flower again, I’ll just have to wait and see.

Giving your roses another feed after their first flush of flowers is another good idea, a rose specific food will have the right combination of fertilisers to keep them growing well through the rest of the summer.

Another thing to remember is to use sharp, clean secateurs and to cut close to either the leaf nodes or new growth without leaving a long piece of stem which will die and go brown and unsightly. A pet hate.

Til next time!