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Petaling the House
The Art of Growing Roses
By Verna Gates
You can't help but admire a 95-year-old man with a five-year garden plan, especially when he happens to be your grandfather. He and I cared for his more than 100 rose bushes, instilling my love of gardening with this fairest of flowers.
"Some curse roses for their thorns; I praise them for their beauty," my grandfather, Carl Gates, often said. He was well acknowledged as one of the finest rose growers in the country, with rose growers begging him to test their new varieties. Those in the know secretly drove down the alley way in Birmingham, Ala., to see his garden; others boldly wrangled invitations through the front door.
His roses grew in the open air and open sun of a backyard with plenty of morning light and at least six to eight hours per day. With fragile leaves susceptible to disease, the morning sun helped to dry the dew before black spot could set in. We built raised beds with plenty of organic matter and surrounded them with corrugated steel to better hold water. My granddad insisted on an inch of water – minimum – per week for his prized roses.
"There's more to watering than walking by them with a hose," he often said, spending hours filling the beds with the requisite inch of water. Deep watering helps form a deep root system. Be sure to water the roots and not the leaves, especially late in the day.
When spring begins to rain its way into April, plant your roses in a composition of three-quarters native soil mixed with manure that's "good and rotten." Dig your hole deep enough for the roots to spread, and don't be shy about pruning damaged roots. The graft union should stay above the soil level. Water and prune everything back to 6 to 8 inches above the graft. Do not fertilize until after the first bloom, or you could damage the roots. Then, feed it after every bloom cycle. When winter comes, cut the canes back to 3 feet.
From spring through late fall, you will be rewarded with beautiful blooms. Just remember to cut them about a quarter of an inch above three, five or seven leaves at an angle. And be sure to always have a five-year plan, because no matter your age, it keeps you young.
