Caring For Your Roses In December

As the festive season commences, your roses will start to slow down for the winter if they haven’t already. This means that December is the perfect time to start some of the winter rose maintenance in your garden.

Keep reading to see what our Rosarians will be doing with their roses during December.

Plant Your Bare Root Roses

December is one of the best months of the year to plant your bare root roses because the ground is cold, which means the rose will stay dormant for a couple of months after it has been planted. This allows the rose to put all of its energy into establishing strong roots before the flowering season.

If you aren’t ready to plant your bare root when you receive it, you can store it in a bucket of cold water for up to two weeks.

Want to learn more about planting a bare root?

Click here to watch our step-by-step video

Start Pruning Your Climbers and Ramblers

December is a great time to prune your climbing and rambling roses, as it gives the plant a couple of months to adjust, before it starts shooting new growth. However, it is important to make sure they have finished flowering and don’t have any new shoots first. Usually, this will happen when the weather is consistently 5 degrees or lower.

Climbing and rambling roses need pruning using different techniques, but as with all rose varieties, the most important step is to make sure you remove any dead, damaged or diseased wood and any wood that looks particularly weak or is growing in the wrong direction.

For a full breakdown of how to prune your climbers and ramblers, click here for our Rosarian’s pruning advice

Tidy Up Foliage And Any Hips 

As our Rosarians have been advising for the last couple of months, it is important to monitor your other varieties of roses and cut off any diseased leaves so they don’t contaminate the soil.

If you would like you can also remove any rose hips that have gone soft and mushy, before they start to drop to the floor.    

If you would like to learn more about rose hips, click here  

Need some more advice on how to care for your roses?