Planting Your Tercentennial Rose

Easy Elegance® roses are bred to be easy to grow, hardy and disease resistant. Care has been taken to ensure that each plent with its name is of the very best quality.

Now it’s up to you. With the proper planting and care, nearly anyone can maintain the health of their Newtown Rose. Healthy plants will reward you with more flowers and will be better able to fight off pests and diseases.

The gardeners and breeders at Easy Elegance® offer the following pointers.

First, remember that roses need lots of sun, especially in cooler climates. Choose a site with five or six hours of direct sunlight per day.

Air circulation is also very important. It’s best not to plant your roses right next to a building – two feet away from the foundation is a good rule of thumb.

The same goes for spacing: never crowd your roses when planting. That way they’ll get plenty of air and light.

Although good air circulation is important, protection from strong winds is desirable.

Next, consider the soil. Think of soil as you would the foundation of your home. You may not really see it but everything depends on it. The soil you plant in will be your plant’s home and food.

Roses send their roots deep and wide. If the soil is so hard that you have trouble getting a spade in it, the roots will also have a hard time trying to penetrate the soil. And if the soil is very sandy and loose, it will have a hard time holding onto food and water.

Aim for something in between – rich dark brown in color, with an earthy smell. The best way to achieve this is by adding lots and lots of organic matter like leaf mold, peat moss, manure and compost. This is good advice for everything you plant.

Leaf mold is nothing more than wet rotted leaves made by letting them start to decompose in a big, thick pile. It is an inexpensive way to add organic matter to your soil every year.

Peat moss is sold at most nurseries in bales and makes a wonderful soil amendment.

Well-rotted horse or cow manure is considered gold in the garden. It dramatically improves structure and adds some nutrients. It also comes in a dried pellet form that is easy to spread.

Keep feeding your soil and it will keep feeding your plants.

Plant roses after all danger of frost has passed.

Water the rose in the pot.

Dig a hole twice as big as the pot. Sprinkle some bone meal or superphosphate at the base and mix with about an inch of soil. These additives needs to be near the roots in order to work quickly.

Carefully remove the rose from the pot and set it in the hole, checking to see that the top of the soil is at the same level as the surrounding soil. Adjust height if necessary.

Add enough potting soul to fill the entire hole. Use your hands to pres the soil in and around the root ball, adding more soil until the levels are even.

Use only organic fertilizers at this time. Others may burn tender young roots.

Finally, soak the plant thoroughly with the hose, letting the water saturate the ground.

Additional information on watering, mulching, fertilizing and pruning roses is available online at                          www.EasyEleganceRose.com, and click on Garden Tips. The website also offers suggestions on cutting flowers, creating potpourri, drying roses and even eating them… carefully.

—courtesy Easy Elegance Rose Collection