When summer comes to an end, it's a hot season for flower growers. This is especially true for connoisseurs of the most beautiful flowers in the world - roses. In order for these graceful beauties to please with their flowering next year, care for roses in the fall is necessary. Preparing for winter is a complex process, and experienced flower growers are well aware that roses need top dressing, pruning, plant shelter.
We will cover this in detail and hope that the information received will be useful to those who have just started growing these magnificent plants on their site.
What happens to roses in autumn?
Today, a huge number of varieties of roses have been bred. They differ in appearance, have developmental features, but the processes occurring in them in the autumn are similar. Therefore, it is important to understand what kind of care is required for roses in the fall. Preparation for winter is based on the processes that occur during this period in the life of flowers:
- Stem growth and bud development slow down. If the autumn is warm, these processes may continue. But this does not mean that preparations for winter can be postponed. Intensively apply autumn dressings for roses during this period in the hope of active flowering is also not worth it. With proper care, all the necessary nutrients, the culture received in the summer and spring.
- The stem is starting to wood. The new bark is able to protect the shoots from the cold.
- The root of the bush is fixed in the soil and accumulates nutrients for storage until spring. Therefore, replanting roses in the fall usually gives positive results.
- In the plant, metabolic processes slow down.
Nature itself begins to prepare roses for winter. But usually this is not enough: these plants are thermophilic, and gardeners should take care of their shelter for the winter. Activities aimed at preparing roses for winter are best divided into several stages, which are held monthly. In this matter, there can be no exact dates, let alone dates, since such a division is rather arbitrary. For example, in the northern regions, cold weather begins early, for this reason, some types of preparatory activities are shifted in terms of almost a month. It is more expedient to focus on the weather and climatic conditions of the region.
Caring for roses in September
During this period, the trunks are stained, weeded, and the rose garden is dried. When preparing roses for winter, pay attention to the condition of the soil. It must be completely clean. Therefore, you should get rid of all weeds and annuals that grow near the bushes. Remove the bottomleaves to a height of about twenty centimeters. This will greatly simplify hilling.
In September, we recommend painting the trunks of roses. Thanks to this procedure, pathogens will not harm the plant. To do this, you can use a special garden paint or a water emulsion diluted with copper chloride oxide. It is necessary to start painting from below and finish at the level of hilling (about thirty centimeters). Feel free to paint the trunks if you find violations of the integrity of the bark. When the trunk dries, the bush needs to be spud.
If flowering has not stopped in September, remove small and withered buds that still will not bloom before the onset of cold weather.
Drying the rosary
Too wet rose garden will not allow the crop to survive the winter safely. Therefore, it needs to be dried. This procedure is especially important in damp autumn. To do this, install arcs above the bushes, which are usually used in greenhouses. Then stretch the film over them, creating a kind of roof. If the plants are too tall, they can be bent slightly to the ground.
We continue preparations in October
So, in October, the preparation of royal flowers for winter continues. Pruning in the fall is very important for roses as it makes it easier to cover the plants. First of all, tall bushes (standard and tea varieties) should be shortened. Otherwise, two-meter beauties will die. The bushes are pruned and potash fertilizers are applied under them. The height of the bushes should be reduced by half. Plants with large flowers shortenby a third. Small-flowered plants are not pruned at all. For them, it is enough to pinch the growing point.
Time for pruning, many flower growers choose according to the lunar calendar. Plants are pruned for the waning moon.
Disease prevention
In October, care must be taken to prevent diseases of roses. This requires the following procedures:
- Spraying. Experienced flower growers know that parasites endure even very low temperatures. Therefore, it is necessary to protect your favorite flowers from diseases for the winter. A 1% Bordeaux mixture solution is suitable for this.
- Clearing the area from debris. The area where the bushes grow should be completely cleared of debris and fallen leaves. If you have a compost pit on the site, transfer all the branches, leaves to it or burn the garbage. This will prevent the development of diseases and the appearance of pests.
Preparation for warming roses
Properly carried out sheltering procedure stimulates the active growth and flowering of crops in the spring, and also helps to keep the plant alive. But the shelter, organized illiterately, can destroy these fragile and delicate beauties. This procedure consists of several steps:
- Cleaning the leaves. All leaves are removed from the plant. This guarantees the protection of plants from fungal diseases. Digging the soil For this purpose it is necessary to use a pitchfork: in this way, you do not injure the roots of the plants. If the plant has long shoots, they must be on one sidedig.
- Hilling. Dry materials are suitable for this: loose soil, peat, sand. Having poured earth under the root, it is necessary to create a mound about twenty centimeters high. This procedure will protect the kidneys from death even in severe frosts.
Shelter of roses
All shoots should be collected and laid out on the ground. After that, they need to be covered with a layer of at least ten centimeters. You can use insulation and thicker, it is important that it does not harm the plant, which can suffocate or break. Spruce branches, dry grass, burlap, brushwood can become a covering material. During a frosty winter, special shelters will be needed. Around the bushes it is necessary to build a frame, which is insulated with polyethylene or cardboard. In November, roses are warmed with snow. Bushes covered in this way, even very fragile ones, will survive the cold well.
Why fertilize in autumn?
Summer flowering of roses requires a huge consumption of nutrients from the plant. When it is completed, the bushes need to restore the disturbed balance. Therefore, autumn fertilizer for roses is necessary - this is a mandatory event that must be planned in advance.
Experts recommend feeding the bushes twice in the fall. The first - at the end of August or in early September, when flowering ends. The second is at the very end of September or at the beginning of October. With the onset of winter, the growth of rose bushes stops, but as soon as the temperature rises slightly above zero, which often happens in the middle lane and in the south,the plant "comes to life" and sap flow resumes. During frosts, the juice freezes, the bark expands and may crack. Pathogenic bacteria start in the cracks.
In addition to autumn pruning, garbage collection, shelter from the cold, autumn care for beautiful roses also involves proper feeding.
When to fertilize autumn roses?
August is the month in which the last autumn fertilizers for roses are applied before the onset of cold weather. The soil is fertilized with phosphorus. In addition, potash fertilizers are applied. In autumn, these chemical elements make plants more resistant to diseases, stimulate the maturation of young wood plants and the flowering of the crop.
What other fertilizers are applied in autumn under roses? Some flower growers use a rather specific type of top dressing. In the soil under the bushes, they bury banana skins, which contain a lot of potassium, which is very useful for these plants.
And manure applied should not be used as fertilizer. This organic is a summer top dressing. A manure-fed rose in autumn produces young stems that only interfere with the crop.
The second feeding is carried out at the end of September. For climbing species and bushes, the best fertilizer for roses in the fall will be:
- potassium (potassium magnesia, potassium sulfate, potassium sulfate, potassium chloride);
- phosphorus (double superphosphate and simple superphosphate);
- calcium (wood ash, chalk, dolomiteflour).
At the end of September it is necessary to use potash autumn fertilizers for roses. To do this, you need to prepare a special solution: fifteen grams of potassium superphosphate and sixteen grams of potassium monophosphate are diluted in ten liters of water.
You can prepare phosphate fertilizers for roses in the fall in the proportion: 10 liters of water + 10 grams of magnesium sulfate. Or in a liter of hot water it is necessary to dissolve superphosphate (50 grams). Dissolve the resulting infusion in ten liters of water and spray the plant.
Calcium top dressing is obtained by dissolving a tablespoon of calcium nitrate in ten liters of water. In October, organic fertilizers, such as rotted compost, must be applied to the soil. Top dressing is stopped in November, so as not to provoke a rapid growth of shoots.
Features of autumn feeding
- In autumn, it is better to replace liquid fertilizers with granular ones, for example, "Autumn". Such dressings are not immediately, but gradually absorbed, providing nutrition and protection to the plant even under a layer of snow.
- Root top dressing can be successfully replaced with foliar top dressing, for example, spraying. At the same time, the concentration of the starting substances is reduced three times.
- Autumn fertilizer for roses is best used in the rainy season in a dry form. This will keep the soil from rotting.
Many gardeners do not deny that roses cause a lot of trouble. But the amazing beauty and marvelous aroma of these beauties in the summer will convince you that your efforts were not in vain. If you correctly carry out autumn activities for the care of roses, thenhe althy and strong flowers will adorn your garden in spring and summer.
