Rose care 101 - A quick run down of my top tips for growing & caring for roses

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Whenever I post photos of my roses, I get lots of questions about rose care. I’m no expert, but I’ve learned a lot in the past few years, and I’m always happy to share what’s worked (and what hasn’t!) so here are my top tips for growing & caring for your garden roses.

  • Roses (especially newly planted ones) need at least 4-6 hours of direct sunlight a day.

  • Roses prefer direct watering (a hose pipe right at the roots) rather than a sprinkler. Roughly about 5 litres per rose a couple of times a week (more in summer & more often).

  • Deadhead (remove the old flower heads) often! And try to cut at a join (between the leaf and stem).

  • Feed your roses every 6ish weeks with a good rose food (I recommend and use Ludwigs Vigorosa).

  • Spray your roses every 2-4 weeks (I don’t do this often enough 🙈😅) with a good rose protector/insect spray. I use ludwigsroses Insect Spray.

  • Invest in a decent pair of gardening gloves to protect your hands. I also have a heavy duty elbow length pair for pruning, which really makes things easy and saves my poor hands and arms from those sharp thorns.

  • My favourite place to buy roses...ludwigsroses for sure.

Roses are actually incredibly hardy, and often need very little care. Give newly planted roses a chance (at least a season or two!) to really settle before worrying if you’re no good at roses. It often takes roses a year or two to really come into their own. And if they don’t look happy, you can always move them (this is called transplanting). If you are going to transplant a rose, try and do this in Winter while the rose is dormant.

Let me know if you have any other questions! I’m always happy to talk roses. Leave me a comment below and I will get back to you.