Growing Roses In South Florida: Ask Denisa’s Ultimate Rose Guide (Part 3 of 3)
Container Rose gardening in South Florida: The good, the bad and the ugly.
Continued from Parts One and Two
One of the best ways to grow roses for many people is to grow them in containers. Containers offer many advantages for gardeners. Here are a few of the advantages container-grown roses offer to a garden.
Soil: Soil type is not something you need worry about when growing in containers because one can choose a high quality potting mix that is well balanced. More experienced gardeners can also create their own mix of potting soil to find a blend that caters to the rose’s specific needs. All roses need good drainage and a good amount of organic elements in the soil. But most roses will do well in good quality potting mix.
Location: Any South Floridian can tell you that the position of the sun changes dramatically throughout the season. A location in the garden that gets full sun in summer may be in full shade by wintertime. Container grown roses can be moved to follow a sunny location and continue blooming almost all year long.
Size Restraint: Although some may see this as a disadvantage, this might very well be a good thing for those with small garden space. Roses can grow to be very large particularly in sunny South Florida. And roses grafted on hearty roots can grow even larger than they would on their own roots. Sometimes even doubling in size! A rose grown in a container will remain somewhat in check and will never take over the yard. If you’ve ever had to prune a large thorny rose bush that has gotten out of control you will appreciate the constricted growth of a rose grown in a container.
Fertilizing: When growing in containers fertilizing might be needed more often, but believe it or not, less is more. When growing in containers the fertilizer goes directly to the roots so less is needed, just more frequently. Use a liquid fertilizer at half strength once a week for amazing results. We like Miracle Grow Rose Fertilizer.
The disadvantages of growing in a container are just as important to consider when choosing your roses for the South Florida landscape. Here are a few things one might consider when growing in a container.
Container size: A container suitable for roses must be quite large, as roses need plenty of room for root structure. Containers of such size can be costly and sometimes very heavy (remember in hurricane season they may need to be moved indoors). When choosing a planter however consider its height over its width as rose roots like to grow further down as opposed to out. Also be sure the container has good drainage, as roses do not like to sit in soggy soil.
Watering: Roses grown in containers will need to be watered more often than those grown in the garden. They may also need to be monitored for overwatering which is sometimes a problem during the rainy season. Use a two-inch layer of mulch in your container to help keep your soil from drying out too easily. If you find you need to water once every day you may be using too small a container. Terra cotta containers are good for roses that like more arid regions but may dry out too quickly for most roses, especially in the mid summer heat. Plastic containers are a good option to help save water, but stay away from dark colored pots. They can get too hot and essentially bake your rose’s roots in the dead of summer.
Growth Restraint: Container grown roses may not grow as fast or as large as roses planted in the ground. If you desire a large rose that will take over a fence or yard consider one of the old garden roses or Austin David roses. These shrub roses can be grown on their own roots and may be better suited for the landscape. Rambling and climbing roses are the best bet for growing large rose bushes that trail over fences or arbors.
Overall roses are well adaptable plants that grow quickly, bloom profusely and can be very heat tolerant. In our warm climate, roses may take a bit more effort, but the results are well worth it. A little knowledge goes a long way when it comes to rose growing in South Florida.
Growing Roses In South Florida: Ask Denisa’s Ultimate Rose Guide (Part 2 of 3)
Continued from Part One
Choosing the right roses for South Florida:
Most roses purchased nowadays do not come on their own rootstock. Roses are grafted to different rootstocks for a variety of reasons, but mostly to make them more cold hardy and to create a stronger, more vigorous plant. Many old roses or china roses can be grown on their own roots because they have both evolved and survived over the years by basically having very strong root systems. But as luck would have it, it seems like the more beautiful the rose the more delicate and weak the plant is. The hybrid process itself sometimes causes this. Luckily the French discovered that they could graft the more delicate plants on to the rootstock of a hardier more robust rose to create a strong plant that thrives vigorously and hence the grafted rose was born.
There are now a large variety of roses that come grafted on to sturdier rootstocks and the University of Florida has determined the two best rootstocks to suite our South Florida climate.
Fortuniana: The first and most desired rootstock for South Florida is the Fortuniana rootstock. This root system is tolerant of heat and drought (by rose standards) and resists root-knot nematodes. It also does well in our somewhat sandy soil (although any roses you plant should be planted in soil that has been improved with organic matter). The Fortuniana rootstock is the highest recommended for South Florida, but its not always available or easy to find. Luckily we have a backup, and a very common one at that.
Dr. Huey: Dr. Huey is by far the most highly used rootstock in grafted roses. Luckily it does pretty well in South Florida as it too resists nematodes, and other root related diseases found in our soil. Most inexpensive roses are grafted on to Dr. Huey rootstock, but don’t be fooled by a low quality rose that may already be virus infected or stunted. All and all when Fortuniana rootstock cannot be found, Dr. Huey is quite acceptable, and widely available.
It is not recommended that we grow roses in their own roots in the South Florida soil unless they are old garden roses, china roses or David Austin English roses. But almost any rose can be grown here if you simply choose to grow it in a container.
Check back with Ask Denisa for the conclusion of our Ultimate Rose Guide: Growing Roses In Containers
Growing Roses In South Florida: Ask Denisa’s Ultimate Rose Guide (Part 1 of 3)
Many gardeners in South Florida overlook roses in their landscape because they feel they are too high maintenance, or that South Florida can be too hot to grow roses. But, contrary to what some may think, Roses can be grown very well in South Florida and are actually extremely heat tolerant. Most major problems, such as the humidity, diseases and root knot nematodes in the soil can be easily bypassed by choosing the right kinds of roses for our region. Over the next few days we will be addressing the three major rose problems and how to avoid or remedy them to keep your garden roses happy all year long. We will also talk about rootstock and container gardening with roses.
Challenge: Humidity
Although roses are highly thirsty plants that require a lot of watering, they do not like to be wet. Rose plants which are constantly wet, easily produce funguses and other maladies that can quickly strip your rose of its good looks. By choosing disease resistant varieties and the right location for your rose, these problems can be easily avoided and ultimately remedied if need be.
What you can do:
Choose disease resistant varieties. Most roses sold at your local garden center will have some sort of known disease resistance. But be wary of inexpensive bag roses. These roses who disguise themselves, as bare root roses are usually virus riddled common roses that bare no resistance to disease. They are not bare root roses and they are of very little quality. These roses were not chosen for their ability to thrive in South Florida conditions and many times are mislabeled so when the rose blooms, it does not even resemble the rose you though you were getting. More experienced rose growers may be able to get one good rose bush out of say, three that were purchased; but do yourself a favor and choose a high quality rose to begin with. It will save you much money and heartache in the long run.
Belinda's Dream is an Earthkind Rose
Choosing varieties that have been proven to do well the south are your best bet. Try the Earthkind series of roses like Belinda’s Dream (above). The Knockout series has also been noted as some of the easiest to grow and old china roses can thrive in almost any environment.
Avoid starting your roses in the dead of summer: Roses will do better if planted in the cooler dryer season where the amount of water they receive can be better controlled. January or September are both great times to start your roses in South Florida as most varieties are cold hardy by our standards. Avoiding planting in the full summer heat and humidity will help your rose to establish itself well before the challenges of a hot and wet summer arrive.
Avoid planting your roses too close together or near other plants. Roses need good air circulation in order to keep molds and fungi at bay. A good mulch around your rose can also keep moisture from collecting too close to the trunk of the rose and occasional pruning of dead wood or branches that cross one another can help keep black spot and other fungal diseases from forming on your plants.
The Oklahoma Rose does well in South Florida
Plant your rose where they will get first morning sun. This is a great way to insure that any dew formed on the leaves dries first thing in the morning, thus reducing the amount of moisture the leaves retain. Our Oklahoma rose grown in a container (above) gets the first sunlight of the day in on the south west corner of the property and is a great choice for our climate.
Challenge: Disease
Black Spot is a common fungal disease.
Sometimes you can’t control everything. No matter how much you try Roses will get black spot at one time or another. A rose wouldn’t be a rose without the occasional leaf drop due to the pesky fungus. But not all is lost. Although Black Spot can make your roses look (and probably feel) miserable, it rarely causes the rose to completely die. Luckily there are a number of products out there to help.
What you can do:
Bayer Advanced makes great products to control rose pests and disease.
In our experience no product works as well as the Bayer Advanced rose care line. In particular their Disease Control for Roses, Flowers & Shrubs spray. This spray wont “cure” Black Spot, meaning leaves affected by the fungus will fall off and die eventually, but it will keep the new growth from ever getting the disease. We’ve also found that one good spray at the beginning of the rainy season is usually enough at really deterring the pesky problem. Although it says to spray every two weeks, once a month is more than enough in most areas if you follow our other rose growing tips. The bad news is of course it’s a highly toxic substance that you may not want to work with. This is why we try to avoid the problem to begin with. With roses, prevention in the first place is your best weapon.
For pest control Bayer Advance also makes a liquid systemic fertilizer and pesticide in one, which works wonderfully as well. Again, it’s a not something we would recommend over-using as many pesticides may have a negative impact on the environment. Unfortunately, more natural remedies have shown to be much less effective and a one or two time application of a product like Bayer’s may actually be less harmful than constant battling with other less effective products.
Challenge: Root-knot Nematodes
In South Florida, we suffer from a little pest called the Root-knot Nematodes. These little organisms’ larvae infect the roots of certain flowering plants and vegetables causing stunted growth and flower production and overall degrade the health of roses in climates where frosts are little to non-existent.
The best way to avoid these pests is to heat treat the soil in the summer before planting. This can be a lengthy process and not always practical for the home gardener, so the alternatives are to choose a rootstock that the nematodes are not interested in, or plant your roses in a container.
Check back with Ask Denisa for part two of our South Florida Rose Guide where you can learn what the best root kinds are for our climate!
See more photos of our home grown roses below!
