Basic Rose Care Tips

You may think that only experienced gardeners can care for and successfully nurture roses to bloom – but roses aren’t as high-maintenance as you may think.

At Oakridge, we sell beautiful shrub roses that require less care than hybrids. We have 20 different varieties – from large double flowers to multi-colored. We even have a modern series of shrub roses, in several colors, that was developed in Canada to be hardy and tolerant of the cold winter temperatures that we typically experience in this region.

When you’re choosing where to plant your shrub roses, aim for areas of your yard that get full sun, as this leads to the best flowering. Dig the holes for your shrub roses a couple of inches wider than the pot they come in and plant them at the same depth as the pot. (Think of it as an even exchange in environments.)

At the nursery, we use a water-soluble fertilizer product called Bloom Buster every two weeks to keep our shrub roses blooming and budding all season. If you only want to fertilize once at home, we also carry Osmocote, which is a dry product that will last three months.

You should only prune roses early in the spring but you can remove spent blossoms throughout the summer to encourage new buds.

Roses need regular watering. You’ll want to water your shrub roses once a week, preferably in the morning. Always be sure to water them at the base of the plant, not on the leaves. Watering in the morning will allow any leaves that do get wet to dry completely before the harshest sun exposure of the day.

Planting shrub roses will keep your yard colorful all summer long!