Rose Flower Growing Tips and Trick

The genus Rosa belongs to the Rosaceae family. There are about 2000 species of roses mainly diffused in temperate areas of northern hemisphere and along Pacific Ocean coasts. Rose cultivation is a topic of interest for many gardening enthusiasts. Maybe because roses are among the most appreciated flowers at all, thanks to their wonderful smells and blooming, or maybe because they are one of the noble flowers cultivated from many centuries; anyhow this specie always wins a huge interest. Roses can be cultivated in pots or directly on soil depending on the type (creeper, bushy, ground covering, etc.) and so could need different cultural practices.

To start growing roses you can buy small plants at a nursery or try to proceed to the multiplication by cutting. Cutting is a very easy technique which consents to obtain a new rose plant from another one already existing. You can transfer rose cuttings directly on soil, in your garden, or in pots, always choosing young and straight stems. Once founding the right amount of stems, chop them off with a clean cut above the gem, from which roots will develop. Cuttings length should be about 20 cm (7. 7⁄8in). Obtain your cuttings using pruning shears and for their cut maintain a 45° (0.7853982rad) angle.

You can leave some leaves at cuttings apex, but usually it is suggested to remove them at all, so that plants energies concentrate on roots and on their development. Insert on soil, enriched with peat and loam, your cuttings for 2/3 of their length.

Prepare and transplant your rose’s cuttings from the second half of summer to the beginning of fall.

An apparently unusual method but very used to prepare roses cuttings consists in using potatoes. These vegetables can help roots formation and furnish nutritive substances and needed humidity to growing cuttings. To use this method make a hole to the centre of every potato, crossing them from one side to the, and insert into each of them a rose cutting.

Then you can transplant rose cuttings directly in pots or into the garden, and maybe even create a small greenhouse with plastic bottles to protect them from bad weather, remembering to uncover them for a while at least once a day in order to make them breathe. Choose a partial shade position for your cuttings and water them every day, in the morning or in the evening, to keep soil always damp. When, if pulling the cuttings, resistance is felt, it means that roots are formed.

Plant roses in autumn, or in winter, when they are in a state of vegetative rest. Soil should be properly dug and manured. To enrich it you can use muck or domestic compost, mixed with peat. Roses love acid soils.

Among suggested natural fertilizers to grow roses we can mention coffee grounds and shredded banana peels, that can be buried in small quantities during soil preparation. Plants could be protected from rigid cold weather with mulch composed by small pieces of bark (preferably conifers) and dried leaves (preferably needles). In fact roses prefer a soil pH between 5.5 e 7.0 (there are specific tools to measure it); a 6.5 value, which denote a pH slightly acid, usually is considered the best one to grow roses in garden.

Soil should be rich in nutrients for roses to grow both in garden and in pots.

To transplant roses in garden you need to dispose plants about 1 metre (3ft 3.370079in) of distance between themselves, paying attention to not ruin roots. Rose exposition to Sun differs from one variety to another; some of them prefer full sunlight, other ones partial shade. Inform yourself about it before purchasing a specific variety, basing on spaces you have at your disposal in your garden.

During the watering, rose flowers should not be wetted and so leaves because this could cause the onset of fungal diseases. Rosebushes always require abundant watering; the best method to do it is to make water run to the bush base until soil is wet enough. Roses watering should be preferably done in the evening in summer and in the morning in spring.

It is opportune to put manure under roses once every two years, in spring, covering the zone which surround plants base with a layer of manure, that then could be buried. At the same time it could be opportune to also administer some granular fertilizer, of balanced formula – about 100 grimes ( 3.527396oz ) for 1 square metre ( 10.7639 square foot ) .

Pruning is done not only to remove deadwoods but also to reduce plants dimensions. It is done when plants are in vegetative rest with an oblique cut about 5-7 mm (196850.4 – 275590.6 µin) above the gem so that rainwater leaches away from the gem. It is very important, after pruning roses, to make a spraying to disinfect the injury. Winter pruning of roses is performed when leaves are already fallen and the first buds aren’t appeared yet. Usually a vigorous pruning gives a more abundant blooming. It is good to remove the oldest branches and try to always give plants the better shape. Summer pruning of roses instead is useful to remove dried and withered flowers and to facilitate new blooming. You can choose among two main different types of pruning, depending on plants vigour:

– Short pruning: it is done on the weakest plants because it is very energic. With this pruning plants are reduced to about 50-60 cm (1911⁄16 in – 235⁄8 in) of height leaving only few gems. So plants will form only few stems but very sturdy.

– Long pruning: it is done on the most vigorous plants. With this kind of pruning plants remain at an height of a little more than 1 metre ( 3ft 3.370079in ) with 4/5 gems. So many flowers are produced but not of high quality.

Keep in mind that when we do a pruning, besides reducing aerial parts we also reduce the root system, because cutting branches some roots lose their functionality and so photosynthesis is reduced since many rose leaves have been removed.

So, in this article we have seen how to grow roses in a very easy way. We hope it helps to start growing these wonderful and romantic flowers.

Good rose gardening to everyone!.

Rose is the perfect flower to donate and every variety brings a different meaning. From ages, rose is symbol of love, devotion, admiration, beauty and perfection. Many use it to honour the loved person or to brighten up their houses, but roses could be used also in the gastronomical sector, as well as in the beauty one. Many rose varieties are used for therapeutic purposes since ancient Greeks and Romans. Varieties with rose flowers are used in Chinese traditional medicine since VIII century.

Here are some of the main uses and properties of roses:

Extracts taken from gems of young buds is useful to regulate body’s immune response.

Rose anti-inflammatory properties are useful for acute phlogosis (alterations of nasal mucous membranes, eyes and respiratory tract with presence of catarrh).

Rose is an excellent remedy to prevent allergies and to cure rhinitis, conjunctivitis and asthma due to contact with pollen; it is also very useful to cure infantile diseases such as tonsillitis, nasopharyngitis, otits, coffin, colds of contagious origin.

Dog rose berries are rich in C vitamin, with quantities up to 50-100 times higher than citruses; eating these berries is very useful to strengthen body’s natural defences. In fact 100 grams (3.5274 oz.) of berries contain the same quantity C vitamin of 1 kilogram ( 2lb 2740 oz. ) of traditional citruses ) .

Vitaminizing and anti-oxidant action of bioflavonoids, contained in the pulp and the peel of dog roses berries, act improving blood circulation. This beneficent effect on blood quality is due to its capability to help calcium and iron absorption in the intestine, balancing cholesterol level e contributing to the haemoglobin production; moreover it actives B9 vitamin ( folic acid ) which has a light antihistaminic effect.

Dog rose is an excellent tonic for mental and physical exhaustion, and helps to defeat stress, a stimulus to flush out toxins, uric acids – which cause gout e rheumatics – through the diuresis.

Roses in general, besides having a therapeutic effect in the case of digestive troubles, have a beneficial effect on the entire digestive system. A massage after meals with essential oil of roses, near the navel and gastric pits, really helps peristalsis and digestive process. An infusion made by rose petals soon after meals is optimum for an antispasmodic action and for a correct Berries have an astringent action due the presence of tannins and are very useful in case of diarrhoea intestinal colic.

Rose is a good diuretic, because stimulating toxins elimination by the urine, is useful contrast bladder and kidneys inflammations, too abundant menses, intestinal catarrh, hyperhidrosis, conjunctivitis , tissues fragility.

Popular medicine advises to use rose water for many reasons. It is a perfumed solution which contributes to the correct body functioning.

By rose petals distillation (essential oil and distilled water) we can obtain rose water. In VIII and IX centuries, it was a very important product in the commerce between the Byzantine Empire and China.

Besides the use of the fragrance in the composition of many perfumes, rose water also has many therapeutic properties and so it used to flavour foods, mainly in the preparation of sweets. For example, it is used to enrich a cream or a “Panna cotta”. Rose petals can be also used to decorate sweets of various types, to add a colored and elegant touch to a deliciousness of to emphasize a specific taste.

Water rose is also used in many lotions for the skin because it has a cleaning and purifying effect. For oily-skin people, its astringent properties help to reduce sebum excess, re-balancing and toning the skin.

Also for people with sensitive skin, rose water helps to calm skin, reducing inflammation and redness. It cures burns and injuries on every kind of skin and it can be used as aftershave…

Rose water properties are much known between hairdressers. It is the main ingredient of main hair products. Its regular application takes care of hair and scalp. It helps to reduce inflammations, increases blood supply at the scalp and aids hair growth.

Rose syrup can be used to soothe bronchitis if taken warm, while in summer is very thirst-quenching if diluted with cool water.