We recently celebrated the 50th wedding anniversary of my sister, Robin, and her husband Roger. Beautiful white roses decorated the fellowship hall of Reform Baptist Church. Earlier that weekend, I had picked up a bouquet of hot pink roses for No. 2 as a treat following a beauty revue. When I stopped by my favorite florist to order a Valentine arrangement for No. 1, the scent of roses filled the air. My mind drifted to the nursery rhyme from the early 1900s: Roses are red. Violets are blue. Sugar is sweet. And so are you.
In typical Olivia fashion, I got sidetracked when I returned home and started looking through my collection of almost a hundred Mother Goose books. The words were slightly varied and the illustrations charming. Google says similar wording by Edmund Spencer can be found as early as 1590 in the Faerie Queene.
Valentine’s Day is your cue to prune your roses. They should be dormant until mid-March in case the weather prohibits outdoor work. Pruning will help shape your rose bush. Remove dead canes and open the center for better air flow to promote growth.
Grab your cleaned hand pruners and long loppers for a smooth cut. You will need gloves for protection from the thorns. If you have a large rose garden, you might want to invest in the longer gloves that reach above the elbow. One researched article suggested rubber tip gloves. If you have not pruned your roses in several years, a pruning saw will be helpful.
Take the time to first remove any old leaves that might still be on the rose bush so you can really see the structure of the plant. Find a bud eye, which is a raised bump on the stem. You will need to cut about a quarter inch above the eye at a 45-degree angle.
Remove any growth that is thinner than pencil size or weaker than the rest. Cut any damaged or diseased growth back to a main branch. Often you will see crossed or horizontal branches. This branch will need to be cut. Remove about one third of the very oldest canes.
Pruning your roses will encourage new growth. The plant’s energy can now be directed towards stronger stems and flower production. It will also limit the spread of diseases and insects.
If you do not have roses in your garden, consider adding a few plants.
Roses are in the genus Rosa and the Rosaceae family. With more than 300 species and tens of thousands of cultivars, you are sure to find a favorite. As you thumb through your favorite gardening catalog, you might find a rose plant producing blooms of white, yellow, pink, crimson, apricot, orange, mauve, red, or numerous shades of each.
There are about seven different classifications for roses. The floribunda produces larger flowers that bloom openly. My favorite is the hybrid tea rose with its long stem and single rose. Florists use more than 250 million stems on Valentines Day. About 18 million roses are used on the floats for the Rose Bowl parade.
Grandiflora blooms often and is a cross between floribunda and hybrid teas. Climbers can grow to 45 feet tall. Climbers can ascend trellises, poles, walls and many still thrive around old homesteads.
If your space is limited, try a miniature rose which only grows to about two feet tall. They make great container plants. Knock out roses are considered a shrub and landscape rose. They are disease resident and require minimal attention. If you have lots of time to provide extra care for a plant, tree roses are for you! They make a statement lining a sidewalk or as a feature plant in a flowerbed.
As you take your daily walk around the garden or yard, always take a pair of clippers with you. Most roses will need to be deadheaded. Cut the stem of a spent or fading flower just above healthy leaf set. Place the removed blooms in a container for disposal to keep your garden tidy and neat.
I think our Sweet Thing No. 3 would prefer a basket of Valentine candy treats instead of roses, though!
Former elementary teacher and avid gardener Olivia Sansing lives in the New Hope community and shares timely tips on behalf of the Lowndes County Master Gardeners.
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