Wanting advice for rose gardening

[ejtaylor822]

Anyone have any advice or tips for building a rose bed. Wife has decided she wants to start rose gardening and I am all for it. She does have a bit of a green thumb – got it from her Dad, that man could grow a tomato on a rock – I like roses and the house needs more flowers/color around it. She bought over a dozen rose bushes, not the kind that crawl up a trellis, but bush out.

The spot we are going to put them is along the side of the house that gets full sun. It’s along a slight slope – maybe 1’ drop every 4’ or so. I was going to use retaining wall blocks and terrace the beds down to the back of the house. The terraces will probably be no more than 2 or 3 blocks high – it’s a slight slope. Was then going to fill in the beds with some of the “rose soil” she got at the nursery. Thinking I should go ahead and put in some irrigation as well.

If anyone has any thoughts, hints, tips, etc. on “rose gardening”, irrigation or building the beds please let me know. Any and all comments welcome.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[KubotaSteve]

I've always had the best luck with roses getting plenty of morning sun. The ones that got just a little evening sun didn't do well at. Make sure to use hardwood mulch and not pine. Pine mulch will kill roses. As far as insects, I like to use Seven dust on the roses after a morning dew or in the evening.
Good luck and don't prick yourself with the thorns.

 

[ToadHill]

Unless your wife bought roses that are resistant to Black Spot, a fungal disease. you need to be ready to treat them several times each year with a fungicide. One of my friends who is a rose expert told me that you want to avoid getting the leaves wet when you water the plants since this will spread the Black Spot. He suggests drip irrigation.