Watters Garden

What better way to enjoy the romance of the garden than by growing roses? Rose gardening has gotten a bad rap in recent years. Growing roses doesn’t have to be a challenge. Choose the right plant for your local garden and you’re halfway to having a spectacular rose garden. Learn the basics of caring for roses and your gardens will be the envy of the neighborhood.

In a nutshell, there are four magic ingredients for making your roses happy and your garden a reality.

The Soil

Roses prefer a soil pH ranging from 6.5 to 6.8. It is important to use Soil Sulfur every spring and Watters acidifying All Purpose Plant Food 7-4-4 every other month during the growing season. Soils with good drainage are best. When improving the soil it is important to incorporate additional soil amendments. Incorporating Watters Premium Mulch into the planting hole for best garden drainage and better blooms.

Irrigation

Water requirements vary depending on season and condition. Deep-watering rose bushes twice weekly is a good start. Monitor the health and vigor of your plants and adjust as conditions require. Roses need to breathe between water cycles. It is best to err on the dry side rather than soaking wet. Older roses appreciate deep, once-per-week watering during the growing season. Add them to the irrigation system that takes care of your trees and they will truly be happy. Morning water is best. Avoid late evening irrigation, which could foster powdery mildew.

Spacing

Grouping your roses too close together may also foster powdery mildew. Let your roses breathe; don’t plant them too close together. Follow spacing requirements for each particular variety when planting rose bushes. Roses planted with four-foot spacing is a good start.

Sun

Give your roses at least six hours of sunlight each day. If possible, let the morning provide the bulk of those six hours, since the afternoon sun can cause flowers to fade sooner than a cooler exposure.

Which Rose is Right for Me? 

Roses can be grown in any location and there are sizes that accommodate any landscape environment. This will help you choose the right variety for your own garden. There are too many sub-varieties to list here, but there are four major rose types for this column.

Bush Roses

This is the largest category. A familiar example of a bush rose is a hybrid tea, the most popular variety in the U.S. today. New colors are introduced every year. They are reliable and easy to care for and not as delicate as some bushes, so they are good for even new gardeners. The one drawback of some hybrid teas is their reduced fragrance, even though this group has the largest individual flowers of other roses.

Climbing Roses

The name is actually a misnomer. Roses do not actually climb. Their long canes can be attached to supports like trellises and arbors. There are two main types of climbers: large climbers, with thick canes that bloom all season like the Josephs Coat Rose; and is the rambler with thinner canes and heavy clusters of flowers that cover the plant in early spring. A good example here would be a Lady Banks Rose.

Shrub Roses

These are hardy and super easy to grow. They grow upright and have numerous canes that are often trimmed to create a sturdy hedge. They self-prune and set new flower buds all by themselves, making shrub roses the perfect hardy landscape shrub. They are also a far more attractive deterrent than a metal fence could ever dream of being.

Groundcover Roses

This variety has a creeping habit. Its canes produce low mounds of roses. Much like the shrub rose, they repeat bloom without care from their owners. Growing only to knee-high, they make excellent colored accents to soften rock lawns, yet are small enough to enjoy in container and raised bed gardens.

You have to stop and smell the roses here at Watters Garden Center. No other flower elicits such universal pleasure.

Until next issue, I’ll be helping rose gardeners here at Watters Garden Center.  QCBN

By Ken Lain

Ken Lain can be found throughout the week
at Watters Garden Center, 1815 W. Iron Springs Road in Prescott, or contacted through his website at WattersGardenCenter.com or FB.com/WattersGardenCenter.

Many herbs are perennial, meaning they can be planted once and left to grow for many years. Perennial herbs take some of the heavy lifting out of garden design by returning year after year. They are comfortable and always look attractive. A perennial bed also allows you to divide and expand your herbal plants as they mature. When designing your garden, plant these herbs for a long-lasting, fragrant garden.

Echinacea is useful for healing, but it is also a beautiful accent for any garden. Echinacea, also known as Coneflower, grows in virtually any garden situation. From moist, fertile soil, to dry harsh arid conditions, echinacea finds a way to thrive like a wildflower.

To help your flowers spread through the gardens, wait until the coneflowers completely dry out in autumn. Remove the dried seedhead and separate the pointy black seeds left behind; gloves are recommended because they are sharp. Cast your seeds anywhere in the garden more plants are wanted.

Lavender is used for everything from cooking to healing. Try growing this elegant herb alongside your showiest flowers. Flowers cover the grey foliage in shades of purple, blue, pink and white; lavender is genuinely a gorgeous perennial herb. Be sure to plant lavender with room to grow. You will be shocked at how large the plants become after just a few years.

If the struggle is all you’ve known when growing lavender, try finding a specimen that is better suited for your garden zone. There are many from which to choose, and you may not have planted the right variety. If in doubt, the hardiest mountain lavender would have to go be Munstead English Lavender, but you’ll find a dozen varieties grown at the garden center through the year.

Mint can be invasive if planted in the wrong place, but it’s an essential addition to any hard-to-cultivate garden space. It spreads anywhere you allow it and many places you don’t. Try to plant your mint in a bucket that is buried part way as a means to control the spreading habit. This should do a reasonable job in containing your mint plant.

Mint is a refreshing, herbal tea and a beautifully scented plant. Try growing a greater variety of mints if you’re really interested in using them in tea. You should avoid allowing mint varieties to mingle, so allow plenty of room between each flavor. This helps ensure your bees and butterflies do not cross-pollinate each plant. You will find at the garden center the obvious peppermints and spearmints, but also consider chocolate mint, or orange, strawberry and pineapple mint for a fresh, new flavor in your gardens.

Sage is a wonderfully versatile herb for gardens. It comes in many colorful varieties and growth habits. Try using it as a decorative filler around other tall garden plants. Sage grows for many years, returning after even the harshest of winters.

The only drawback to sage for years is that it often becomes woody to the point its leaves only grow on the end of each stem. Avoid this by keeping it pruned back to encourage new growth. You will find leaves grow closest to the cuts that result in a fuller, more beautiful specimen. There are so many varieties of sage – you might just want to switch things up and grow a new variegated, or pineapple scented, or tricolored sage as your next new specimen.

Thyme is one of the herbs that grows anywhere. It’s perfect for gardeners who aren’t particularly hands-on because the less you fuss with this perennial herb, the healthier it becomes. There are many varieties from which to choose in both upright and trailing habits, so there’s one to fit almost any situation and style.

Use thyme as a filler between stone walkways. It offers a lovely scent when stepped on and easily handles modest traffic. Thyme grows well in areas that are just too dry and conditions that are too poor for other plants.

Garden Alert 
Flowers are being overrun by one tiny insect that sucks the life out of roses or anything in bloom. They damage trees like pears and redbud with curled leaves, or blackened tips that resemble fire blight. Also known as “No-See-Ums,” this insect makes a plant look terrible to the point of death if left unchecked. This alert is all because of the spring rains and cooler than average temperatures. 

Multi-Purpose Insect Spray is the spray of choice that obliterates this dangerous pest. Thoroughly soak every leaf of your plant until dripping wet, and reapply this same bug spray in 10 days and you will have a healthy, happy plant that thrives the rest of the season. 

Until next issue, I’ll be helping local gardeners with their herb gardens here at Watters Garden Center. QCBN

By Ken Lain

Ken Lain can be found throughout the week at Watters Garden Center, 1815 W. Iron Springs Rd in Prescott, or contacted through his website at WattersGardenCenter.com or FB.com/WattersGardenCenter.