Roses grow faster in September than at any other time. The care they receive this month will set them up for a successful summer of flowering.
Summer can become a bed of roses if you are not stingy with water or nutrition during this peak growing time. The roses will be able to establish a strong, durable root system and a healthy framework of branches to withstand whatever the next season throws at them.
Re-pruning can also be done by cutting back to where strong new stems are coming out. By cutting back to them, the diverted sap flow will encourage them to become stronger. If Icebergs were not pruned, cut back to green stems. This will encourage new sprouting, something most other modern roses would not be able to do.
Get them growing
Water deeply twice a week and make sure that the water gets to the roots. If necessary, use grey water or stored rainwater to supplement municipal water because the rose’s water needs are at their highest. After September, the water needs taper off. Mulch the surface of the soil to retain moisture and prevent evaporation. Also make sure the soil is friable enough to allow the water to drain through. If soil is compact loosen the soil and add in organic material.
Protect roses from pests
Sucking insects such as aphids and thrips as well as beetles can stunt new growth and spoil flowers. To prevent this spray with Ludwig’s Insect Spray from mid-September. To get rid of sucking pests for the entire season, drench around each rose bush with Koinor. This is a long-lasting systemic pesticide that should be effective for up to six months. A soil drench is safer for bees because it goes into the plant but not the pollen.
Fertilise the roses
Because they are growing so fast, the roses need nutrients. Fertilise towards the middle of September with Vigorosa. Compost and manure dug into the soil after pruning will be another source of nutrients that are slowly released.
The recommended dose of Vigorosa for medium sized roses is 30 g per bush and miniature roses and newly planted roses can get half the recommended dose. Large climbers or shrubs can get double that.
Want better flowers for longer?
This can be achieve by finger pruning of your hybrid tea roses in early September, just before the new shoots form the flower buds.
By removing the tips of a third of flowering shoots, the flowering cycle for the rest of the season is broken and there should not be a day without at least one bloom on the bush. New basal growth is also encouraged and that improves the quantity and quality of blooms during the season.
Because the bush doesn’t flower all at once, there is no temptation to pick all the blooms and this reduces the stress on the roots.
How to do it:
- Any number of shoots can be pinched but the general rule is that it should be a third of the new shoots.
- Select new shoots that might be too close to one another and in competition with each other and pinch out the tip of one of them. Also pinch out those that look weak or are growing to the inside of the bush.
- To pinch, use the thumb and pointing finger and just snap off the tip.
- Within a week the reddish-purplish leaves will mature to green and the very upper eye will resprout. The newly pinched stems will flower about two weeks after the stems that were not finger pruned.
Finger Pruning is not needed for climbers, Colourscape varieties, Iceberg’s and most of the floribundas.
For more information: www.ludwigsroses.co.za
Article and images by: Alice Coetzee
