As I mentioned when I spoke about when to prune roses, your aim is to ensure that the new shoots are not destroyed by the frost, so you want to prune near the end of winter.

And, if you are doing the pruning yourself, this is an AWESOME opportunity to listen to an Audiobook.

If you find working in the garden a little boring, passing the time listening to your favourite authors always works for me.

Oh, and if you’re not aware of it, go read the article about rose pruning to get the free little “rose pruning ebook”. Hopefully it can give you a few ideas.

Enjoy, and dress warmly, it’s still pretty chilly

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2009. | Time for Pruning Roses in South Africa | No comments yet. Click here to add yours... |

Subscriber Exclusive Content
Visit this page: eBooks for Subscribers
And download my 2 eBooks: "How to Prune Roses" and "The HomeMade Flytrap"

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

It’s title is “How to Prune Roses” and is about 13 pages (depending on when you download it) and includes photos.

It’s main purpose is to give you some sort of guidance when it comes to pruning roses. The first time I did it, I went on a 1-day course, and I’m really glad I did. I don’t think I would have had the guts to prune my roses as “drastically” as I was shown.

So, I thought I would share a bit of what I learnt with you. It’s not comprehensive, but rather is to be used as a guide so that when you prune your roses, you have an idea of what to expect, and what the end result should look like.

When do you prune your roses

You should really prune your roses after the last frost (or about 3/4 of the way through winter, if you don’t get frost).

This is to ensure that the new buds that shoot out after pruning are not destroyed by the cold. And believe me, if you’ve never cut your rose bushes right back before, you will be AMAZED at how much new growth happens after a good pruning.

So, in the United States, I would say a safe time for pruning would probably be the middle of February, depending on how cold it is where you are.

And in South Africa, the best time for pruning is in July in the warmer areas, and the middle of August in the cooler areas, like the Cape.

How to Prune Roses

How to prune your roses

So, to download the eBook on pruning roses, you just need to subscribe to this website (it’s free). You can do so by entering your email address into the box on the top left of this page (in the “Subscribe” section), and clicking the big button that says, you guessed it, “Subscribe“.

It’s free to subscribe. All that’s needed is your email address so that you can receive updates to this site whenever they happen. And, at the bottom of each update will be a link to a page containing any exclusive content for subscribers.

Other Subscriber Exlusive Content

As a side note, there is currently 1 other eBook available for download to subscribers: The Home Made Fly Trap. This eBook gives you a nice little guide to build your own fly trap with things you most probably already have in your kitchen (like syrup, sugar, water and a coke bottle).

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2009. | Pruning Roses | 6 comments. Click here to add yours... |

Subscriber Exclusive Content
Visit this page: eBooks for Subscribers
And download my 2 eBooks: "How to Prune Roses" and "The HomeMade Flytrap"

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

If you’d like your Rose Bushes to grow and flower a little more than they are currently, I’m just going to tell you a little thing I learnt about where to prune my roses.

One of the keys to helping roses grow more “bushy” and flower more, is obviously to prune them, but also to prune them just above an “eye”.

In the photo below, the red arrow is pointing the the eye on the rose stem (that has already been pruned):

And, in the photo below, you’ll see what has sprouted from a pruned rose stem. I’ve circled the place where I cut the rose stem, and I’ve got arrows pointing at the 2 shoots that flowered:

I hope this has proved helpful. Let me know if you have any comments or questions…

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2008. | Where to cut Roses | 2 comments. Click here to add yours... |

Subscriber Exclusive Content
Visit this page: eBooks for Subscribers
And download my 2 eBooks: "How to Prune Roses" and "The HomeMade Flytrap"

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

And, some benefits are that it’s really quick to do, and really quick to clean, as you’ll see.

Ingredients

- Tall glass vase
- About 5 or 6 different roses, cut at different lengths.

Instructions

We bought a cheapish tall glass vase from a shop called “Loads of Linen”. It looks quite stylish, but hey, maybe the fact that it was under R100 helps.

I cut a few roses at different lengths, including a couple where I only cut off the flowers. I tried to get a few different types of roses to add variety to the setup, but unfortunately the frost we had a couple of weeks ago didn’t exactly leave all my new roses blooming.

We then placed the different roses into the vase, with no water.

We decided to try this without water to see what it would look like considering that it might be quite hard to clean such a tall vase, and we don’t mind if the roses don’t last that long. That’s one of the bonuses of having a rose garden: it doesn’t cost quite so much to restock your flowers.

I hope you can see the effect in the photo. Unfortunately I’m still using a phone camera, so it’s not the greatest of pictures. Do you have any other ideas for easy table decorations?

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2007. | A Vase, Some Roses, an easy idea | No comments yet. Click here to add yours... |

Subscriber Exclusive Content
Visit this page: eBooks for Subscribers
And download my 2 eBooks: "How to Prune Roses" and "The HomeMade Flytrap"

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Be careful, because a lot more water can come out now that there is nothing stopping it (like your spray nozzle), and it can come out with a surprising force, even if it doesn’t look like it’s coming out that hard.

The best thing about this is that you can just hold the hose pipe to the base of the rose bush and you will thoroughly soak the ground around your roses. And, apart from a few splashes, the rose leaves will remain dry. You obviously don’t have to water your roses like this all the time, especially since it’s not the most comfortable way of watering, but I’ve changed to using this method, and it just seems better.

If you have any comments, suggestions or improvements, please leave a comment below…

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2007. | A better way for watering roses | No comments yet. Click here to add yours... |

Subscriber Exclusive Content
Visit this page: eBooks for Subscribers
And download my 2 eBooks: "How to Prune Roses" and "The HomeMade Flytrap"

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

A fungus generally grows in damp conditions, which is quite bad, considering roses need water, which, if you’re not careful, can lead to damp leaves…

I think the main culprits for my roses getting the fungus are the following:

- Watering the roses in the mid afternoon doesn’t give the sun time to dry the leaves before the evening
- With winter coming, they are receiving more shade, especially with the sun setting earlier, which is part of the reason above
- When watering the roses with a hose, it’s quite hard NOT to get the leaves wet. It’s not a BAD thing if they are, as long as they can dry, but they definitely shouldn’t stay wet.

So, I eventually managed to get rid of the fungus using a product called “efekto Funginex“. From the side of the box, here’s what it is/does:

An emulsifiable concentrate systematic fungicide for the control of powdery mildew, black spot and rust on various ornamentals and powdery mildew and rust on several edible crops.

I’ve bought the bottle that contains the concentrate so that I can mix it myself. This gives you more control over how much you use (more at first, then slowly using less and less), and it turns out to be a LOT cheaper than buying the already mixed spray.

Another way to prevent powdery mildew and other fungi is to change the way you water your plants. Which is what I did, and what I’ll talk about in another post…

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2007. | White fungus on Roses | No comments yet. Click here to add yours... |

Subscriber Exclusive Content
Visit this page: eBooks for Subscribers
And download my 2 eBooks: "How to Prune Roses" and "The HomeMade Flytrap"

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Northern Hemisphere

This is when you’ll need to:

• Pick off about half of the new shoots, to encourage new growth
• Water your roses at least twice a week
• Spray your rose bush every 2 weeks
• Fertilise the soil

Southern Hemisphere

• Water around 3 times a week. More if it’s really hot where you are
• As mentioned in “4 tips for caring for Roses“, prune your roses, cutting back the flowers once they’ve bloomed.
• Spray your roses every 1-2 weeks
• And, fertilise your roses at the beginning of the month, watering them thoroughly afterwards

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2007. | March Guide for Roses | No comments yet. Click here to add yours... |

Subscriber Exclusive Content
Visit this page: eBooks for Subscribers
And download my 2 eBooks: "How to Prune Roses" and "The HomeMade Flytrap"

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Northern Hemisphere

This is when you’ll need to:

• Apply mulch to protect your roses from the cold, and keep the moisture in
• Water your roses once a week
• Spray your rose bush after pruning

Southern Hemisphere

• Water around 3 times a week. More if it’s really hot where you are
• As mentioned in “4 tips for caring for Roses“, prune your roses, cutting back the flowers once they’ve bloomed
• Also mentioned in the above post, spray your roses every 1-2 weeks
• And, fertilise your roses at the beginning of the month, watering them thoroughly afterwards

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2007. | February Guide for Roses | No comments yet. Click here to add yours... |

Subscriber Exclusive Content
Visit this page: eBooks for Subscribers
And download my 2 eBooks: "How to Prune Roses" and "The HomeMade Flytrap"

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Northern Hemisphere

Being the middle of winter (practically), this is the time for you to:

• prune your roses, cutting them right back
• Water your roses once a week
• add compost to your roses beds and churn the soil for increased aeration
• transplant your roses if necessary
• Spray your rose bush after pruning

Southern Hemisphere

• Water AT LEAST 3 times a week. More if it’s really hot where you are
• As mentioned in “4 tips for caring for Roses“, prune your roses, cutting back the flowers once they’ve bloomed
• Also mentioned in the above post, spray your roses every 1-2 weeks
• And, fertilise your roses at the beginning of the month, watering them thoroughly afterwards

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2007. | January Guide for Roses | No comments yet. Click here to add yours... |

Subscriber Exclusive Content
Visit this page: eBooks for Subscribers
And download my 2 eBooks: "How to Prune Roses" and "The HomeMade Flytrap"

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

When I went to the nursery to buy my roses, the person who helped me used to look after the roses that the nursery used to enter in flower competitions, before they had sold that part of the business. It’s an adjoining restaurant, where I got married. You can see a photo of it in my post entitled “Wedding Photography in South Africa – Review“. Unfortunately you can’t see much because it’s a night shot.

Anyway… When he was helping me pack the roses into my car, I asked him for his top tip on caring for roses. He gave me his top tip, and added another, and added another… So I thought I’d compile his best tips for caring for roses.

1 – Water your roses

THIS is the #1 tip for roses, as they need lots of water. You can use a sprinkler system for watering roses, but sometimes you just need to stand with them and use a hose-pipe to ensure that they get a good soaking. He did mention talking to them while you’re watering them, but I think I’ll leave that to you to decide.
(Although, my mother always says you should talk to your flowers if you want them to grow ).

2 – Feed your roses

For this you’ll need rose fertiliser. I use “Wonder Rose Fertilizer“, which says it is an “8:1:5 (25)” fertiliser for all roses. You need to give the roses fertiliser once every 3-4 weeks, and only a very light sprinkle, ensuring that it doesn’t touch the roses, and water them THOROUGHLY. If you put too much and your roses start to look “burned”, you will probably have to remix your soil and re-plant your roses.

But believe me, using this fertiliser REALLY does wonders for the roses.

3 – Spray your roses

For this I use something called “RoseCare 3” from Efekto. It protects roses (and other ornamental plants) from powdery mildew, Blackspot, Rust, Aphids, Thrips and Redspidermite. When you first get your roses, you will need to spray them with a more concentrated amount (15 or 20 ml per 1 litre, instead of the usual 10ml). You should use the more concentrated mixture for the first 3 sprays. You need to spray your roses every 1-2 weeks, at least at the beginning, and then possibly make it 2-3 week intervals.

4 – Prune your roses

I’m not talking about the makor cut-back that you will have to do mid-winter, where you cut your roses bushes all the way back. This is just the pruning of the flowers once they have bloomed. The more you prune, the more flowers you will get. I was told to prune my roses once they had bloomed, and the lower down I cut them, the bushier my rose-bush would get. The added bonus is, the lower you cut the flower, the longer the stem, and the more likely you can put the rose in a vase of some sort.

—

So, if you have anything to add to these tips, feel free to leave them in the comments below, otherwise, happy rose gardening, and I hope these tips help you as much as they’ve helped me.

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2007. | 4 tips for caring for Roses | 2 comments. Click here to add yours... |

Subscriber Exclusive Content
Visit this page: eBooks for Subscribers
And download my 2 eBooks: "How to Prune Roses" and "The HomeMade Flytrap"

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh