I never thought I’d be good at rose-growing. When we moved into this house six years ago, I had never managed to keep a house plant alive for longer than six months. I tried, of course, but without much success.
Things really turned a corner when a friend recommended I try growing roses. I’m now up to 17 roses of different types and styles, and I’m scheming to add more. Along the way, I’ve learned that many of my preconceived ideas about roses were wrong. In hopes of sparing you the same misconceptions, here are the top myths I believed about rose care and some truth to dispel them.
Myth #1: Roses are hard to care for
People on TV who have roses seem to be constantly tending to them, don’t they? I think that’s where I got the idea that rose-growing requires obsessive, daily maintenance. It turns out nothing could be farther from the truth. Roses are pretty low-maintenance plants. I water mine once a week (twice when it’s really hot or when they’re new and just getting rooted), feed them once every 1-2 months, and prune them once in winter. That’s it.
I assumed that English roses needed, well, an English climate. Some of them might prefer that sort of climate, but not all. It turns out a lot of them really like a warm, dry environment. That warm, dry air helps prevent the buildup of moisture on their leaves that can lead to fungal infections.
I was afraid a rose garden would be a water suck. In truth, roses actually get very unhappy if you water them too much. Each plant only needs about 2” of water each week, or about 4-5 gallons per plant. Rose-growing turns out to be one of the less water-intensive gardening activities.
Myth #4: Roses are hard to prune
Roses are remarkably forgiving plants when it comes to pruning. With the exception of climbers, which require a little extra attention, you can do the bulk of your rose trimming with an electric hedge trimmer (I know, it shocked me when I saw it, too). Then you can thin things out more carefully with handheld snips. It’s almost impossible to prune your rose bush too much, and it will almost always grow back quite happily afterward.
Sure, yes, there are some old rose varieties that are definitely prone to disease. Lots of modern rose variants, though, have been cross-bred with hardy varieties to make them disease resistant. If you’re worried about battling infections in your new roses, just look for rose varieties that have been bred for disease resistance.