Manage These 5 Points for Your Roses in Summer
An introduction to the green plants and flower care for managing roses in summer, with corrections welcome if there are any mistakes!
As June temperatures rise, the second bloom of roses is coming to an end. If you want your roses to survive the summer safely and bloom beautifully in autumn, it's time to pay attention to the following points now.
1. -- Light Pruning After Blooming --
Mid-to-late June is the time for the second bloom of roses. As the second bloom fades, it's necessary to prune the roses promptly. However, it's important to note that as we're about to enter the midsummer, roses need a lot of leaves for photosynthesis to survive the summer, so light pruning is recommended after blooming.
Personally, I suggest you only cut off the faded flowers, or find a leaf with 5 small leaves below the faded flower and cut it off together, keeping more branches and leaves, which will be more beneficial for the roses to survive the summer.
Because during the entire hot summer, rose leaves are easily attacked by diseases and pests, and can be sunburned, leading to heatstroke and a large number of yellow leaves. If there aren't enough leaves, the roses can easily become bare sticks during the summer, causing the growth to weaken and may not survive the scorching summer.
2. -- Apply Fertilizer Lightly and Often --
After pruning the faded second bloom, it's important to maintain an appropriate fertilizing frequency because roses continue to grow. However, fertilizing at this time requires special attention to two points.
① Light Fertilizing Often
With the increase in temperature, the watering frequency for potted roses has also increased significantly, which can lead to a severe loss of nutrients in the soil. To keep roses in good condition during the summer, it's important to apply light fertilizers in June, avoiding thick or raw fertilizers.
When applying water-soluble fertilizers, the concentration needs to be reduced, for example, if 800 times concentration was used in spring, now it should be reduced to about 1200 times, as high temperatures can easily cause fertilizer damage, and reducing the concentration is safer.
Additionally, for gardeners who have the habit of spreading compound fertilizers, it's important to reduce the amount of ternary compound fertilizer applied in June, as it can easily cause black stems in roses.
After fertilizing, it's important to observe the condition of the roses. If you notice symptoms like burnt leaves or black stems, you can immediately flood the roots with plenty of water to save them. Of course, if the problem is discovered too late, it might be too late to save them, so always check the roses after fertilizing.
② Be Cautious with Slow-Release Fertilizers
Many gardeners stop using water-soluble fertilizers in summer and switch to slow-release fertilizers. If you are doing this, it's recommended to spread the slow-release fertilizers on the surface of the potting soil. In summer, slow-release fertilizers can release nutrients too集中ly, easily causing fertilizer damage.
If the slow-release fertilizer is spread on the surface of the potting soil, any fertilizer damage can be promptly resolved by removing the fertilizer. Otherwise, the slow-release fertilizer can cause continuous damage, making it difficult to save the roses.
In summary, the principle of light and frequent fertilizing must be remembered, whether it's water-soluble or slow-release fertilizers, do not overuse them.
3. -- Provide Shade for the Pots --
Many gardeners are纠结 about whether to provide shade for roses in the summer. Understanding this point will help you stop worrying.
Roses are plants that love the sun, and most rose varieties will not be sunburned when exposed to the sun in summer, provided there is enough water. Roses planted in the ground can tolerate full sunlight in summer without any problems, but for potted roses, it's recommended to give them half-day sunlight in the morning during summer, which will help them grow well. If there is no half-day sunlight condition, you can use a shade net, or place another pot outside or apply a heat-insulating film.
Because the summer sun can make the pot very hot, if no protective measures are taken, the hot pot walls can kill the fine roots of the roses, affecting their growth significantly. This is why many roses look half-dead after summer, with no white roots and only brown or black dead roots.
4. -- Pinch Off Flower Buds --
In the entire summer, roses will continuously produce flower buds. However, because of the hot weather, the roses in summer can look ugly. It's recommended to pinch off the flower buds to save nutrients and let the roses bloom in autumn when the quality of the flowers will be better.
5. -- Focus on Preventing Diseases and Pests --
The entire summer is a high-incidence period for rose thrips, black spot disease, and red spider mites, as well as occasional leaf-eating pests like caterpillars and looper caterpillars. Therefore, the prevention and control of rose diseases and pests cannot stop throughout the summer. Simply put, "medicine cannot stop." On sunny days, it's recommended to spray pesticides every 15 days to ensure normal growth of roses. When it rains a lot, the frequency of spraying needs to be increased.
To reduce the number of sprays, you can mix pesticides for insects, fungicides, and miticides and apply them together, making pest and disease control easier.
The above sharing on managing roses in summer by focusing on these 5 points can help your roses grow vigorously and bring a little help to your life!