How to Care for Roses in Spring

Rose care in the spring will vary somewhat depending on your region and the type of roses you own. From careful pruning to fertilizing and from treating for pests to removing debris and mulch around the base from winter, there are various considerations that need to be made.

While roses have a reputation for being challenging to grow, the reality is that most will keep growing and blooming even with neglect. But, proper early season steps can ensure that you'll have fewer problems to navigate during the growing season.

1. Remove Winter Rose Protection

   Remove winter rose protection like mulch or straw once temperatures consistently reach 40 degrees at night. Always wait for freezing temperatures to subside first, as freezing and thawing can kill the plant’s new growth
   

   When it comes to removing winter rose protection, specific types of roses will have specific types of needs:

   • Rose bushes: Some gardeners routinely cover an entire rose bush with a cage or bags of dried leaves or straw. Remove the cages and the covering material about the time the spring tulips and daffodils have begun to bloom. Rake off the soil or mulch and remove any debris or leaves.
   • Hybrid roses: Hybrid roses are often over-wintered by trimming and binding up the canes, digging a trench, bending the entire bush into the ground, and covering it with soil and mulch. If this was your winterizing method, rake away the mulch, dig up the roses, and bend them upright. Tightly pack the soil around the roots to support the bush, but leave the graft union exposed.
   • Trailing roses: With trailing, climbing roses, the winterizing process involves laying the long canes out flat on the ground, pinning them down, and then heaping soil and mulch over them. In spring, carefully rake away the soil and mulch, unpin the canes, and secure them once more to the supporting fence or trellis.

2. Prune Your Roses

   Early spring is an ideal time to inspect the bushes and do any necessary pruning. Even if you did some amount of pruning in the fall, it's likely the tips of canes have died back somewhat. Pruning before the leaf buds open causes the rose bush to put its full energy into new growth.

   Using sharp pruners, cut back each cane in short segments until you remove all dead wood and reach the green, growing wood. How much old growth you remove depends on the severity of the winter, but even if you cut back nearly to the level of the root graft, your rose will likely recover.

   Warm Climates

   Spring pruning in warm climates can start in January. Roses grown in areas with warm winters, like Florida and Southern California, don’t necessarily need to be pruned at all. But thinning is still advisable because you should always remove diseased and dead wood.

   Another technique gardeners in warm areas can try is removing all the leaves from their rose bushes during spring pruning. This fools the rose into a brief period of dormancy and lets it start fresh for the season. Rake and remove all debris from the rose bed.

   Cold Climates

   Roses grown in areas that receive freezing winter temperatures should not be pruned until about April, or the canes could suffer more winter damage. Once the leaf buds begin to swell on the bush (usually around the time forsythia bushes start to bloom), it's safe to prune your roses.

3. Feed Your Rose Bushes

   As with most plants, roses enjoy a good feeding in the spring after they've begun actively growing. You can give them their first fertilization at pruning time.

   Commercial Fertilizers

   There are several quality rose foods on the market that you can use, but a general all-purpose fertilizer will also suffice. Slow-release fertilizers will need to be applied less frequently than water-soluble fertilizers.
   

   DIY Rose Fertilizer

   If you prefer to mix your own rose food, you could balance ingredients such as:

   • 1 cup cottonseed meal
   • 1 cup bone meal or superphosphate
   • 1/2 cup blood meal
   • 1/4 cup Epsom salts

   Spread the mixture around the perimeter of the rose bush, at the drip line, gently scratch it into the soil, and water thoroughly.

   Epsom Salts

   Many rose gardeners also like to give their roses a handful (about 1/4 cup) of Epsom salts at feeding time. Whether the extra dose of magnesium benefits the plants has never been proven, but many experienced gardeners swear by it. However, you should only use Epsom salts after a soil test to confirm your soil is indeed low on magnesium.

4. Spray for Diseases and Pests

   Unfortunately, roses tend to have a proclivity for fungal diseases. Preventative spraying in the spring is something to be considered even for roses grown organically.

   Lime sulfur is a good choice for spring spraying. It will generally kill any fungus spores like black spot that might have overwintered. An additional spray of horticultural oil will help to smother any insect eggs and larvae.

5. Water Deeply and Consistently

   For the first watering of the spring, make sure to water them as deeply as possible. After that, watering should be performed once or twice per week for the remainder of the spring season. Give them around one to two inches per water pre each session.
   

   Water rose plants at the soil level and avoid getting the foliage wet as much as possible. Wet foliage invites fungal diseases and insect predators.