Care of Roses in July

Even the easy-care shub roses such as Knockout, Drift, Oso Easy and Flower Carpet benefit from some mid-July cleanup. Here are some tips for mid-July care of roses.

1. Deadhead finished flowers.

Although the shrub roses will put out new flowers on their own, you can hasten the production of new blooms by clipping off the old ones. Ignore that old advice about clipping above a set of 5 leaflets. Just take a hedge trimmer or pair of pruners and cut them off anywhere below the old blooms.

2. Some roses get blackspot. Some drop their leaves as a result.

Blackspot is a fungal disease that is often seen on Cape Cod because of our cool, damp spring weather. Most landscape (aka shrub) roses tolerate it and even if they have spotted leaves, they don’t drop all of their foliage. But some other types of roses will lose their leaves once they get blackspot. If you have a shrub that has lost its foliage, don’t think that the plant is dead. Most of these will grow new foliage in the fall once the weather is cooler. You can help by giving the plant some Rose-tone now, and top that with an inch of compost all around the rose bush. Clipping a few inches off of the stems can also prompt it to grow new foliage. Spray with an organic fungicide now, again in the late fall, and again next spring.

3. Water roses deeply less often, in the morning if possible.

Roses like consistently moist soil but don’t need daily irrigation. If possible, water them in the morning so that the foliage drys out. You’ll also keep the soil moist by adding an inch of compost over the entire area, and top that with an inch of mulch. When done on an annual basis, this not only holds water in the ground, but amends the soil from the top down.