Tips on what to do with your Roses in Winter

Late Winter roses

If you love the look of a rose bush smothered in showy blooms during the warmer months or can’t resist inhaling their gorgeous fragrance, it’s not too late to plant a brand-new rose.

1. Planting

It’s your last chance to plant bare rooted roses during August, which you will see in your local garden centre in plastic bags. As soon as you get your bare rooted rose home, remove it from the bag and pop it in a bucket of water for a few hours before planting.

You’ll also find a tempting range of potted roses in garden centres, which can be planted year-round.

How to get the best from your roses:

Find a sunny spot in a garden bed that receives at least 6 hours of sunshine a day, or somewhere that you can position a good sized, well drained pot (at least 30 cm in diameter).
Roses also do best in a location with good air flow, which helps to minimise diseases.
Water the new rose in with Yates Thrive Natural Seaweed Tonic, which will encourage healthy new root growth.

2. Late Winter feeding

As roses begin to wake up from their winter slumber, it’s time to start feeding them to support the flurry of new stems and leaves that will develop over the coming weeks.

In late August when you see new buds start to swell, apply some Yates Thrive Roses Flowers Liquid Plant Food around the root zone. Yates Thrive Roses & Flowers is a complete plant food that contains the right balance of nutrients to promote healthy leaves as well as encouraging lots of beautiful blooms.

Late Winter rose reminders:

Give your shrub roses a good prune, down to around knee height, and remove any dead stems.
Spray with Yates Lime Sulfur Concentrate before new leaves emerge to break the scale insect pest cycle before spring arrives.