April may be the cruelest month for T. S. Eliot, but it’s the busiest month for rosarians! Warm climate roses are about to bloom, but cold-climate rosarians are kicking off rose season with a flurry of activity.  This is the time- when the forsythia blooms in your neighborhood- to plant new roses, prune the old ones, and begin your fertilizing and spray programs.

Whether your new roses are potted or bareroot, you still have to dig a large planting hole. It needs to be large as in a big diameter, and deep, too.  I prefer planting roses in well-prepared beds, where all the soil is loose and friable.  But if you’re planting in soil where nothing but grass has been growing for a long time, your planting hole should be huge.  You’ll be, essentially, creating a mini bed for your rose plant, with loose, airy soil in which rose roots can easily grow both outward and downward.

The roots of bareroot plants should be pruned only to remove broken or damaged ones, so dig your planting hole at least half-again the diameter of the spread-out roots.  This hole should be a couple of feet deep, too, to allow the large roots to grow downward without having to work too hard.  The roots of potted plants have been stuffed into their pots and may very well spread out further when they’re freed from the pot.  So dig a hole that’s twice as big around and twice as deep as the pot.

Soil amendments, such as blood meal and bone meal, should be added to the planting hole now.  These elements don’t travel in soil and will only benefit your plants if they’re placed at the roots at planting time.  Do not add regular growth fertilizer to the planting hole.  It can burn the roots at this early stage.

Planting depth is important.  In climates that are warm all year round, the rose should be planted so that the bud union is well above ground level.  For own-root plants, the crown of the plant, where the canes meet the roots, should be planted at ground level.  But in cold climates, the bud union, or the crown of the plant, should be planted two to four inches below the final level of the soil.  The soil covering the bud union will help keep it from being damaged by cold weather.

The canes of potted roses have already been pruned, and new growth will have started.  However, it hasn’t been growing long enough to have become rootbound. So in order to prevent disturbing the roots any more than you have to, it’s best to remove the pot from the plant, rather than removing the plant from the pot.  Insert the blade of a utility knife into one of the pot’s drainage holes and cut around the circumference to remove the bottom of the pot.  Place the plant, in its bottomless pot, in the planting hole, and then cut the pot away, keeping the rootball entirely intact.  Backfill quickly before the rootball falls apart.

You handle bareroot roses a little differently.  They’ll be dormant, or close to it, when you plant them.  Once they’re planted, they have to grow feeder roots really fast in order to support the existing canes and the new growth that will sprout very quickly.  So you have to do this.  It will be painful, but the plant requires it.  Just do it:  prune off half the length of each cane on the plant.  Believe me, you’ll end up with a much happier, healthier plant.  

Create a cone in the bottom of your planting hole that mirrors the shape of the plant’s roots.  Place the plant on the cone and backfill the hole, making sure the bud union ends up at the correct depth.

For both potted and bareroot roses, you should water the soil in the planting hole to compact it.  Add more soil and water until the soil is level.  Never, ever, use your feet to tamp the soil around rose plants.  The “mudding in” method keeps the correct amount of oxygen in the soil, but eliminates large air pockets.

The tops of potted plants will continue to grow strongly. But on newly planted bareroot roses, both feeder root growth and top growth has to start from scratch. Mound some additional soil up over the canes to prevent their drying out in the sun and wind while the feeder roots begin to grow.  Gently remove the mounds with a stream of water when new leaves begin to poke through.

Keep newly planted roses well watered, and don’t begin your fertilizer regimen until they’ve been in the ground for a month.

Mid-April or so is also the time to prune established roses. Prune first to remove winter damage. This may mean pruning the canes very short, but if there’s any green remaining at the base of the canes, new growth will sprout and the plants will be just fine. Even if your rose canes are tall and green after winter, they still need pruning.  Prune rose canes short for fewer but bigger flowers. Prune higher for more, but smaller flowers.
This is the time for applying the first fertilizer to established roses. Feed them now with an evenly balanced fertilizer, such as 8-8-8 or 10-10-10. Use with this formula each week for three weeks, then switch to a high-phosphorus fertilizer, such as 8-20-1, after the buds set.

Unless all your roses are disease resistant or disease free, you should start a preventive spray regimen now to keep plants free of bugs, mites, and rose diseases all season. The products you select will depend on the number of roses you have, but should include an insecticide, a miticide, and a fungicide. If you need help selecting fertilizers and spray materials, give me a call or drop me an e-mail! GG

Ann Hooper is the president of Primary Products and will always answer your rose culture questions by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Request a Primary Products catalog at www.primaryproducts.com or by calling 800.841.6630.