Let our handy guide help you care for your roses year round.

 

Summer

  • Keep your plant well watered during the hottest months of the year, but don’t water the foliage - this encourages mildew and rust.
  • Deadhead your plant, correctly. Cut it back (on an angle) to a leaf that has five leaflets. This will help produce a flowering bud.
  • After your plant’s first major flowering in summer, feed it composted cow manure.
  • Remove leaves with black spot disease and collect any on the ground, but do not compost.

Autumn

  • Give your plant a mulching of composted cow manure.
  • Continue to deadhead your plant, using the method detailed above.
  • Aphids love this time of year. Get rid of these pests with pyrethrum or Conquer® Residual Insecticide Concentrate.

Winter

  • Cut back your roses, for fabulous new growth in spring.
  • With no foliage on your plant, now’s the time to spray Lime Sulphur, to control scale. Spray on bare roses and lightly on the ground around bushes.
  • Rotating fungicide every two to three weeks is a great way to stop pests becoming resistant. For example, spray twice with Triforine, then change to an organic fungicide, like eco-rose.
  • To get rid of aphids, between fungicide sprays use a pesticide or insecticide like Conquer Residual Insecticide Concentrate or pyrethrum.
  • At the end of winter, feed your plant special rose fertiliser, like Sudden Impact for Roses or Osmocote Roses Gardenias, Azaleas & Camellias. For in-depth winter rose pruning tips, click here.

Spring

  • To give your roses a helping hand, feed them plenty of composted cow manure and a rose fertiliser, like Sudden Impact for Rose or Osmocote Roses Gardenias, Azaleas & Camellias. Top with sugar cane or bark mulch, to assist in retaining moisture and suppressing weeds.
  • If you notice leaf fungus like black spot or mildew, use a fungicide like Triforine and insect spray for aphids.

Need help choosing a rose? Click to read about some of our favourites.