Rose Gardening Regional Growing Guide

In some parts of the country, rose gardening is a year-round activity where cold winter temperatures are short-lived and rose gardening continues uninterrupted from season to season. Other regions suffer from erratic winter and spring temperatures, which might shift more than 50 degrees from one day to the next. To get seasonal gardening information and learn more about how to care for roses in your part of the country, visit our Regional Growing Guide.

You do not need a green thumb to tempt truly incredible roses to flourish in your care. You just need to follow some basic rose gardening tenets in order to keep your plants happy, healthy and blooming throughout the entire growing season.

• Prune roses in winter or early spring once the rose starts to show signs of new growth, usually in the form of tiny red buds swelling. These buds will become new branches.
• Cut out any obviously dead or damaged branches first. Then cut out all but four or five healthy main stems.
• Cut the stems back by a third to a half, depending on how tall you want the bush to be. Make these cuts right above an outward-facing bud - that is, a red bud that's on the outside of the rosebush. This directs the bud to grow up and out, leaving the center of the rose bush open for a prettier shape and better air circulation.
• Water your roses frequently, but not heavily. Too much water at one time can cause your roses' roots to rot and leaves to mold. Do not use high water pressure when watering your roses or you will wash away soil and valuable nutrients.
• Mulch. Roses need less weeding and watering and have fewer diseases if you lay down 1 to 2 inches of organic mulch, such as wood chips, pine needles, grass clippings or other biodegradable material.
• Deadhead. This simply means trimming off spent roses to encourage the bush to produce more. While some roses bloom only in one big flush in June, others are bred to keep producing off and on all season long.
• Stop fertilizing roses in early autumn, at least one month before your region's first annual frost date. Fertilizing too long into autumn encourages roses to produce tender new growth that will get nipped by cold.
• Protect roses as needed in late autumn, after your region's first hard freeze. In regions where temperatures don't fall below 20 degrees F, no additional winter protection is needed.