Roses in spring and summer are floral masterpieces, but you need to put in a bit of effort in winter to ensure this happens.
In winter, they look like lifeless sticks, but they’re sleeping, not dying, and you can be sure there’s plenty of kick left in them yet to give you endless summers of beautiful, bountiful blooms.
So, start thinking now about planting new bushes (bare-rooted), prune existing ones or moving them to another spot in your garden.
When should you plant roses?
Winter time – when your garden is mostly still and you think you can put your feet up – is the time to plant bare-root roses.
These spindly, leafless branches with sprays of gnarly roots are hanging out for a snug bed of soil so that foliage, buds then flowers erupt to create such spring and summer splendour.
Planting them in winter when they are dormant means they don’t go through transplant trauma. In fact, they’ll end up being healthier and stronger than those you buy from your local garden centre in a pot.
That’s not to deride the potted rosebush. Garden centres give them all the attention and nourishment they need to harness the impulse buyer (it’s their business model). The best time to buy roses in a pot for planting in your garden is spring or autumn.
How to prepare your garden for rose-planting
1. Choose the right spot
Choose the spot where you want to plant your rose carefully – it needs to be in full sun so it gets at least six hours of sunlight a day.
2. Check your soil
Check your soil – it needs it to be nutrient-rich and well-drained. If your soil is clay and water doesn’t drain away, dig in organic matter. If your soil is sandy and water drains away too quickly along with any nutrients you add to it, again, dig in organic matter. It’s best to do this a couple of weeks before the roses arrive so the soil has time to settle.
3. Create the perfect growing environment
Test the pH of your soil with a simple and cheap tester kit from your local garden centre. Roses prefer a pH of 6.5-7. If the soil is too acidic or alkaline, certain nutrients in the soil may not be able to be drawn up by the roots once they wake up.
If the soil is too acidic, add powdered lime; if it’s too alkaline, add powdered sulphur. Both can be bought from your local garden centre or hardware store.
Follow our in-depth guide to growing and caring for roses to ensure your planting and maintenance will give you the prettiest flowers during summer!
Planting bare-root roses
Planting bare-root roses is most often a less-expensive option than transplanting from a potted rose bought from your local garden centre.
And, buying online from established wholesale nurseries gives you a greater range to choose from. Ordering in the last days of autumn means they will arrive in winter when they’re dormant, and give you time to prepare the soil.
When the roses arrive, the roots will probably be wrapped in burlap. Use our how-to guide for planting bare-root roses to help get your rose bush from little sticks to a blooming beauty.
Feeding and watering roses
Making flowers as fabulous as roses takes lots of energy so they’re hungry beasts. Also, if they don’t have the proper nutrients, they’ll become susceptible to pests and disease. Feed with quality rose-specific fertiliser at the beginning of spring, summer and autumn. Rose-specific fertilisers provide the necessary pH balance roses crave.
In winter, roses are dormant and feeding them is a waste of time and money. Overfeeding can create a growth imbalance, such as the production of more leaves at the expense of flowers. And we want flowers!
Winter pruning
Winter is the best time to prune your rose bushes because the leaves have fallen and you can see the bones of the plant.
As well, the plant is dormant, so it’s not going to feel the pain of an amputation. While roses have grown and thrived in the wild for centuries, the breeds and varieties available now that produce those magnificent blooms are a bit more precious.
Pruning with clean, sharp secateurs is essential to let more light into the bush and ensure good air flow between branches – roses hate humidity – thereby helping prevent diseases such as black spot, powdery mildew, rust and canker. Pruning also helps you maintain the shape of the rose bush.
How to prune roses in winter
- Before your start pruning, stand back and look at the bush. If any of the branches are rubbing against each other, remove one of the limbs, specifically the one that grows into the centre of the plant. Inward growing plants prevent airflow and increase humidity. The rubbing causes wounds to the branch, which can lead to infection.
- Next, remove branches that are dead, right back to the stem. Then open up the centre of the bush to allow greater air circulation. Overall, aim to trim the branches back by a third, cutting at an angle just above a growth node.
- When you spot a green, or sometimes pink, shoot, this is young growth and is where flowers will emerge. Just give these ‘water’ shoots a very light trim.
And, don’t forget to put on your gloves to avoid being stabbed by prickles.
Transplanting a rose during winter
Winter is the best time to transplant a rose bush because it’s dormant.
- The first thing to do is dig and water the hole where you want to move the bush.
- Then prune branches of the bush back by a third.
- Gently dig around the bush, about 30cm deep and about 30cm away from the stem. Using a garden fork, gently lever out the roots and wash soil from roots.
- Cut off any roots that are damaged and cut the rest back by about half to two-thirds.
- Replant immediately into new hole with a stake to help support it. Water well.
How to move potted roses into a garden bed
- It’s best to transfer a rose from its nursery pot to your garden when the weather is cool, so plant in spring or autumn, not summer.
- Dig a hole in your chosen sunny spot large enough to accommodate the pot, fill hole with water and, when it’s drained away, remove the plant from its pot carefully – squeezing the sides makes this easier.
- Be careful not to disturb the roots as you’re doing this, so don’t shake off the potting mix or tease out the roots.
- Place root ball in hole, making sure the soil line is level with the top of the potting mix, fill sides with dug-up soil, press the soil gently but firmly, then water well and cover soil with mulch.
In a couple of days or a week, your rose may show signs of wilting – this is transplant shock. Keep the plant watered, but don’t feed it as it will have been topped up with food in the nursery to make it attractive enough for you to want to buy it.
Growing roses in a container
This prospect is a wonderful option if your most sunny spot is a deck, veranda, balcony or a concrete slab. Roses thrive in containers so long as there is enough room for the roots, which can become quite large. Choose a container with an internal diametre of at least 45cm and equally deep so roots won’t become squashed.
- Be sure the pot has a drainage hole, and line bottom of the container with a couple of centimetres of gravel to help with the drainage.
- Half fill the container with rose-specific potting mix, settle root ball on top then wrap more potting mix around roots. The potting mix should only come up to where the stem begins, about 2.5cm below graft scar. Water well. Potted roses need more water than those in a garden bed.
After a year or two, the potting mix will have collapsed, closing the tiny air cavities vital for the roots’ health, and the nutritional value of the mix will have been used up. In spring, remove the mix and the rose bush and replant it in fresh potting mix.
