Roses Provide Instant Beauty In Your Yard
When I purchased my weekend home in East Hampton, N.Y., several years ago, the one-acre property was in disastrous condition.
The garden was almost totally defunct, with straggly shrubs, dead or dying trees, a patchy lawn and a thin, spindly privet hedge enclosing the entire almost-square plot.
Though some may have viewed the place as a wasteland, I considered it an empty palette on which to plan and plant and have fun.
I promised myself that reinvigorating the garden would be an enjoyable project. I also decided, for the first time in my gardening life, to allow myself instant gratification.
The garden at my Connecticut home is still a work in progress after 20 years. I wanted my new garden to be there right away.
Knowing that roses tend to grow rapidly and bloom quickly the first year, I decided to turn the space into a huge, colorful rose garden.
Here’s the step-by-step process I followed. Use it as a guide to create your own beautiful space. March is the time to begin, since early spring is the ideal time for planting roses.
1. Every garden, no matter how large or small, needs a master plan. Because mine was quite large, I worked with a landscape architect to create detailed drawings of the garden and property.
The drawings for the rose garden included positioning walkways, trellises and the shapes of the various plots.
2. Testing the soil was the next step. I found that the prevalent soil mix was clay and sand in compacted form. Very little will thrive in such conditions, so I knew I would have to do a lot of soil rehabilitation. (See step 4.) For a precise soil test, contact your local County Cooperative Extension office or check the Yellow Pages for a private soil laboratory. Let the laboratory know what you intend to plant, so the soil testers can make recommendations for soil amendments.
3. Next, I started ordering rose bushes from my favorite suppliers. (Order now for spring delivery. Rose growing is so popular that you need to order early to avoid being disappointed by sold-out varieties. See accompanying source list.)
4. In mid-March, with the aid of a small backhoe, I began to work the soil, digging every planting area to a depth of 30 inches.
Well-rotted manure, topsoil, compost, peat moss and sand were mixed in with the existing soil to create an environment in which roses would flourish.
5. By late March the gardens were ready for planting and I anxiously awaited the arrival of the 400 bare-root rosebushes I’d ordered.
A planting plan, mapping out where each bush was to be placed, had already been created. This is important if you are planting different varieties. You need to be sure that a low-growing rose will not be placed behind a very large specimen, that a climber will be given a support and that a shrub will be given the space it needs to develop.
6. When the plants arrived, I unpacked them and immediately placed the roots in tubs of cool - not cold - water.
To each gallon of the soaking water, I added a cup of epsom salts. I also clipped off broken or bruised canes and damaged roots.
(The bushes should be planted within two days of unpacking.)
7. Roses like to be planted in large holes - ideally 24 inches wide by 18 inches deep.
Here’s the planting method I used:
Dig a hole and then mound a pile of soil in the center. Spread the roots over this “cone” and fill the hole halfway with soil. Water well, allow water to be absorbed into the hole, and then fill the hole, covering the roots completely.
Be careful not to bury the graft, which is the bulge on the plant above the root stock. The graft should always be right above ground level.
8. To help with watering and feeding, I created a shallow moat around each bush.
I watered my newly planted bushes every day for about two weeks, until leaves began to grow. Then the feeding began.
For the first feeding, I mixed 1/2 cup of epsom salts and 1 cup of RoseTone, a packaged fertilizer that is high in organic ingredients. As leaves developed and buds formed, I sprayed the plants with a dilute mixture of epsom salts and baking soda to control mildew and promote green growth.
I recommend spraying with fungicides and pesticides only if problems occur.
9. To keep the bushes healthy, I fed them every two to three weeks with organic rose food and manure “tea” - a cup of dehydrated cow manure steeped for a few days in 2 gallons of water.
With this kind of care, a newly planted rose garden should become a highly successful garden - and a source of great joy - almost immediately.
xxxx Ordering Roses Here are some of my favorite rose suppliers: Pickering Nurseries 670 Kingston Road Pickering, Ontario Canada L1V 1 A6 (905) 839-2111 Wayside Gardens 1 Garden Lane Hodges, SC 29695 (800) 845-1124 Roses of Yesterday and Today 802 Brown’s Valley Rd. Watsonville, CA 95076 (408) 724-3537 Heirloom Old Garden Roses 24062 Riverside Drive N.E. St. Paul, OR 97137 (503) 538-1576
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Martha Stewart New York Times Syndicate