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Winter is Rose Planting Season

Garden centres will be brimming with fabulous selections of bagged, bare-rooted roses during winter. Here's how to plant your brand new rose and some important winter rose care tips to keep it looking fantastic.

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  • When you get your new rose home, unwrap the plastic from around the roots and then place the plant in a bucket of diluted seaweed solution, so that all the roots are covered. It’s important not to let the roots dry out.
  • Choose a well-drained, airy spot in the garden that receives at least 6 hours of sunshine a day, as roses growing in shady conditions will develop spindly growth and have less flowers.
  • Dig a hole around 30 cm wide and deep. Mix some Yates Dynamic Lifter Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser into the soil dug from the hole. It will improve the structure and quality of the soil and provide the rose with gentle slow release organic nutrients as it establishes.
  • Create a pyramid shaped mound of soil in the bottom of the planting hole. Place the rose in the hole with its roots sitting on and around the mound of soil.
  • Ensure that the graft union (bump on the stem) will be sitting at least 5 cm above the final ground level. Backfill around the roots gently with Yates Dynamic Lifter enriched soil and then water in well.
  • Apply a layer of organic mulch, like bark chips or pea straw, around the new rose, keeping the mulch a few centimeters away from the stem.
  • Keep the soil moist while the new rose establishes.
  • Roses are also fabulous for growing in pots, like this beautifully fragrant rose called ‘ShowpieceTM Berry’ from Anthony Tesselaar Plants.

Winter Clean Up

  • There is a range of common rose pests and diseases, such as powdery mildew, scale and mites, that are lying in
  • Used at the higher winter rate, Yates Lime Sulfur will control powdery mildew, scale insects and mites, helping to break the pest and disease cycle and give the rose the best possible fresh start in spring.
  • Once the rose bush is pruned, spray all stems thoroughly with Yates Lime Sulfur. It’s a pungent (it smells a little like rotten eggs) but very effective way to control rose pests and diseases.
  • Did you know that Yates Lime Sulfur can also be used to control rust, two-spotted mites and powdery mildew on roses from spring to autumn? Just apply at the lower rate indicated on the pack.

Late Winter Feed

  • At the end of winter and early spring, roses will start to wake from their winter slumber and it’s time to feed them with a specialised rose food. Yates Thrive Natural Roses & Flowers Pelletised Organic Based Plant Food is a complete fertiliser that is specially formulated to provide roses with the nutrients they need to grow healthy foliage and lots of heavenly flowers.

Frost protection tip

If you live in a really cold area, delay pruning until August as pruning can stimulate new leaf growth which could be damaged by frosts. If your rose does produce vulnerable new shoots prematurely during winter, spray leaves and stems with Yates Waterwise DroughtShield. It creates a thin flexible protective film over the shoots which helps reduce frost damage.

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