Caring For Your Roses In March
With longer evenings and temperatures slowly starting to warm up, March traditionally marks the start of spring. As your roses leave their dormant state and start to grow again, there are plenty of jobs you can do in the garden this month to ensure you get the best from your roses in the summer.
Prune Your Hybrid Tea Roses
Following traditional practices, Hybrid Tea roses aren’t pruned until the end of March, but with our changing climate, our Rosarians advise getting all of your pruning finished by the middle of March. This is because the warmer weather we have seen over the last few years in early spring means that roses are starting to shoot new growth earlier in the season.
For a full breakdown of how to prune your different varieties of roses, Click Here
Mulch Your Roses
If you haven’t already, March is a great time to add a layer of mulch around the base of your roses to protect the roots over the summer and boost the nutrients in the soil.
Our Rosarians recommend using strulch, well-rotted manure or a good compost. Just make sure it isn’t mushroom compost.
Feed Your Roses
In March, our Rosarians will be feeding their roses with a granular slow-release feed to give them a boost as they start to grow throughout the spring. This ensures that the plant will have strong, healthy new growth and helps to promote an abundance of blooms in the summer.
Our Rosarian’s top picks for rose feed are Top Rose for a granular feed and Uncle Tom’s Rose Tonic for a liquid feed.
Click here to find out more about feeding your roses
Plant Any Remaining Roses From Winter
March is your last chance to plant any remaining bare root roses that you have been storing through the winter. Planting them after March means your rose is less likely to flower this summer, as it will still be trying to establish strong roots during the prime growing season.
March is also a great time to plant any container roses you have bought over the winter, as the weather starts to warm up. For best results, make sure you add a layer of mulch around the rose once you have planted it and feed the plant with a slow-release fertiliser.
Comments are closed here.