Beginner's Guide to Growing Roses

Posted on 01/17/2023

How to Grow Roses

Roses are the most popular flowers to grow and to give. How can you confidently add this paragon of flowers to your garden? We’ve compiled this complete guide to roses so you can enjoy their glorious blooms and enticing fragrance while knowing how to care for them for years – or decades – of enjoyment.

Introduction to Roses

Expert garden designer and rose pro, Paul Zimmerman, entertains and regales you with the basics of growing roses in this 10 video series “Introduction to Roses”.


VIDEO INSTRUCTION FOR GROWING ROSES

Get to Know Roses from Flower to Root

Do you know the parts of and terms for roses? We can best care for roses when we know them inside and out. Get to know the anatomy of a rose.


parts of a rose

LEARN ABOUT ROSE ANATOMY

Guide to the Different Types of Roses

Read the guide to better understand the categories, types, and general growth habits of roses so you can plant just the right rose for your garden need.

Roses in the Landscape and Companion Planting

When you’re ready to choose your roses, there are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Choose a quality plant that comes with a guarantee. You’ll know in a few weeks of planting whether your rose has taken root in your landscape.
  • Roses like full sun. That means 6 or more hours of direct sunlight per day. Generally, your roses will be happiest with morning sun and some afternoon shade.
  • Purchase roses that are recommended for your growing zone. You can find your Zone here and our website includes the range of Zones in which your chosen rose will thrive.

Adding perennials to your rose garden will enhance its beauty. Learn about companion plants that look great with roses.


ROSE COMPANION PLANTS

Rose Care Tips

We’ve learned so much in our 150+ years of growing roses. Paul gives us expert advice in this 14-video series about caring for your roses.

Rose Gardening Terms Glossary

Wrapping up Growing Roses for Beginners, here is a brief glossary of terms about roses.

ARS Rating: American Rose Society provides a numerical performance rating for recommending roses

Basal Break: watch the video for a concise explanation that’s easy to understand

Bud Eye: this video clearly demonstrates the term

Container or Potted Rose: in fall, roses are shipped to you in a temporary pot or container (instead of bare root as they are in spring); we also use “container” as a catch-all term for a decorative pot in which you may grow your rose and flower garden

Deadheading: removing spent blooms

Disbudding (hybrid teas): removing side buds to create fewer but larger blossoms

Disbudding (floribundas): removing the center bud to improve clustering/development of side buds

Dormant: for plants, dormancy signals when to prepare plants’ soft tissues for freezing temperatures, dry weather, or water and nutrient shortage. Instead of exerting energy to grow, they know to stop growing and conserve energy until mild weather returns

Ever-blooming (blooming habit): continuously in bloom; every new shoot produces a flower

Flush (blooming habit): an intense bloom period with many flowers

Grafted: a technique that marries one plant onto another; these are really two plants: the cane (or stem) and root system

Hybridization: the process of obtaining new roses. In this process, the pollen from one plant fertilizes the ovary of another

Mixed beds: gardens that include roses and other perennials

NPK: common plant fertilizers are comprised of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K)

Own Root: a cutting that develops and grows on its own root system

PPAF: patent pending, applied for

Petals: Single: having five petals; Semi-double: petal count between twelve to sixteen; Double: over seventeen petals usually 26-40 petals; Fully or very double: petal count over 40 and as high as 100

Remontant (blooming habit): having more then one period of bloom during the growing season

Repeat Blooming (blooming habit): a rose that blooms in cycles, running the course of one flowering period before starting a new one, so it might bloom in the spring and then again the summer or fall

Rose hip: video

Rose trials: ARTS, AGRS, AARS are (or were in the case of AARS) organizations that grow roses to evaluate their growing habits and needs to aid consumer growing success

Rose virus: a chronic problem that has infected a plant

Rosette: growth, design, or arrangement that resembles a rose

Self-cleaning: naturally sheds the petals of its spent blooms, making a tidier-looking plant


SHOP ALL ROSES

Share your questions with us on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Happy planting and successful gardening wishes from all of us at Jackson & Perkins.