June is rose month!  Weddings, anniversaries, garden parties all more beautiful and festive with roses!  Aren’t we happy we grow our own?

In warm climates, the rose season is in full force but in the cooler climates, its first bloom.  It’s the very best time for rosarians because the established plants, which were all pruned at the same time in April, all bloom at the same time in June.  New roses, which were planted in April, will be blooming now, as well.  So the rose garden is at its most magnificent.

Some rosarians like to enjoy their roses in the garden, where the blooms make a glorious display.  Others like to cut the flowers, so they can fill the house with color and fragrance. I like to do both, so I grow lots and lots of rosebushes!  I can cut the wonderful hybrid teas, while still marveling over the color that the floribundas and shrubs provide in the landscape.  It’s the best of both worlds!

With the warmer weather, however, the early summer insects are attracted to the color and fragrance, not to mention the delicious taste (apparently) of rose petals.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t like sharing my roses with these destructive pests.  

The systemic insecticide, Merit, which is the best and easiest product to use for preventing bugs from attacking rose foliage, unfortunately doesn’t translocate into the flowers.  So petal spoilers, such as Japanese beetles and rose chafers, have to be controlled with a contact insecticide.  Bifenthrin, the active ingredient in Talstar and Bifen I/T, is just terrific for getting rid of these chompers.  Bifenthrin is a pyrethroid, so it’s safe to use, and is the very best product on the market for keeping Japanese beetles off your plants.  For the past few years, I’ve sprayed it just once, on the 4th of July, when the Japanese beetles make their first appearance in my yard, and didn’t see another beetle all season!

As you cut flowers and remove spent blooms, new stems will start growing immediately.  Keep your plants well watered and fertilized so they’ll have the energy to continue to producing new foliage and flowers.  The addition of organic materials to the soil, such as fish emulsion, liquid seaweed, compost, and composted manure keep soil alive and healthy and able to break down the fertilizers so the plants can use their nutrients.  Add liquid products the same way you fertilizer on the soil at the base of each plant.  Dry products, like microbial soil conditioners and alfalfa pellets can be scratched lightly into the soil.  Don’t waste your time or money with bone meal or superphosphate, as these products don’t travel in the soil.  They should be added before planting, where they work at root level.

Top-dress rosebeds with four or five inches of rich compost or composted horse manure. This material will break down over the summer, increasing the important bacterial activity that keeps soil healthy.

Everything you apply to the soil in your garden is broken down by the microbial activity in the soil.  The inevitable result is an accumulation of salts in the soil that restrict the ion exchange that allows your fertilizer to be used by the plants.  Perhaps you’ve noticed that your plants don’t seem to grow as well as they did a few years ago.  If you haven’t treated the soil to flush away the accumulated salts, your fertilizers can’t work effectively.

The treatment is simple. Drench the soil with liquid calcium.  For garden plants that get fertilizer only a few times each season, apply the liquid calcium as a soil drench once or twice a year.  For roses, which are fertilized weekly, use the liquid calcium twice a month.  You’ll be amazed at the increased vigor all your plants will exhibit!
As always, drop me an e-mail if you have rose culture questions! GG

Ann Hooper is the president of Primary Products and will always answer your rose culture questions by email at
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