Important Early Spring Care Tips For Roses, From Our Professional Gardener

When the first spring thaw occurs, gardeners can often be seen walking around their gardens. We're enjoying signs of spring (ooh, crocuses!), but we're also looking to see what early season garden chores need doing. Some things can wait; personally, I don't clean up my garden beds until mid-spring because beneficial pollinator insects aren't ready to emerge yet from beneath the leaves. But there's still plenty to do, including some rose maintenance. My top priority tasks for rose care in early spring include light pruning, mulching, fertilizing, and pest prevention. 

In my professional gardening work, I've cared for many types of roses, and they often have varying needs. For example, climbing roses might need to be retrained on their supports and pruned lightly. Most hardy shrub and hybrid tea roses will need some pruning, maybe some fertilizer, and some fresh mulch. 'Knock Out' roses don't really need fertilizer and are pest resistant, but they benefit from pruning throughout the growing season. English roses, while mostly disease resistant, are sometimes vulnerable to pests and may need extra protection. Some heirloom roses are wonderfully hardy and resilient, while others can be quite fussy.

These differences among plant types and specific care needs are one reason roses can be difficult plants to grow in the garden. But rose enthusiasts (like myself) agree that the beauty and fragrance roses bring to the garden are well worth the extra effort. Addressing these easy but necessary tasks starting in early spring means getting your roses off to a healthy start for the season.

If you live in an area with mild winters, start pruning you roses in January. But if you live where winters are cold, wait until April. By then, you will see leaf buds appearing, and pruning will help stimulate that spring growth. Monitor the weather for sudden changes. For example, where I live, spring temperatures can reach above 60 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, then drop below freezing overnight. Keep an eye on the forecast and avoid pruning just before an overnight freeze.

At this point, you may be thinking: Hang on a minute, I pruned my roses in the fall, why do I need to prune them again? Even if you pruned well in autumn, some winter damage can occur, so the first step to spring rose pruning is cutting off any broken, dead, or damaged canes. Then prune lightly to stimulate growth. If the tips of the canes you pruned in the fall have turned brown or look dry, prune them again: This will encourage more buds and branching. Cut at an angle just below a leaf node using clean, sharp bypass pruners or rose snips.

Most roses won't need pruning again until fall, though vigorous varieties (like climbing roses and 'Knock Out' roses) can be pruned as needed to keep their shape. Keep your roses deadheaded through the season to encourage more flowers and maintain a neat appearance. Spring pruning is also helpful if your roses tend to sprout a lot of summer growth. Keeping them trimmed helps them get adequate airflow, reducing the risk of powdery mildew and other diseases. 

Once spring pruning is done, roses need a bit more attention to prime them for the season. If you use a winter mulch on your roses (I use pine straw, which is also a good choice for mulching strawberry plants), you can remove it now to give your roses' bases some fresh air and sun before mulching again in late spring. I add shredded pine bark mulch to my flower beds in late spring, and it's great for roses.

The next thing to do is add some soil amendments. Roses like soil that is rich, loamy, and well-draining. Adding a bit of compost to the soil in spring helps improve texture and nutrients. Some soil additives can also help with preventive pest control. One great early spring trick I learned is to add some milky spore to the surrounding soil. This all-natural granular powder contains a bacterium that kills the grubs that mature into destructive Japanese beetles — an aggressive pest, especially towards heirloom and English roses.

Some gardeners find the very idea of growing roses daunting, which may explain the popularity of 'Knock Out' roses versus heirloom roses, as the latter can sometimes be fussy. I find a bit of food helps, and makes my older heirloom and shrub roses every bit as floriferous as my 'Knock Out' roses (which don't need fertilizer, but also lack the romantic fragrance of heirloom varieties; ahh, the trade-offs of gardening). There are many rose fertilizers available, but I like the good old reliable Espoma Organic Rose-tone. Add some in early spring (following instructions on the label), and your roses will thank you.