Content

• Steps

Roses add color and flavor to any garden, but to get the most out of these plants, you need to understand how to set the stage for roses. Loam is best suited for growing roses. Loam makes up about 50 percent of air and water, and the rest is made up of sand, clay, silt, and organic material. In order for roses to delight you with their appearance, before growing them, you need to select the soil as accurately as possible and, if necessary, change its composition.

Steps

1. 1 Determine the type of soil you have and make the necessary adjustments to get a loamy mixture.
   • Clay soil will hold water but drain poorly. It is usually very alkaline and will require a lot of organic matter to be added. Adding gypsum will improve the clay soil and provide good drainage.
   • Sandy soil will drain, but will require frequent watering. It also needs to be adjusted with organic material.
   • Organic soil is generally very acidic and will drain well and retain moisture. You may need to add lime to the soil to raise the pH.
   SPECIALIST'S ADVICE

   "The best thing to do with any type of soil is to add 20-30% of the best compost you can get to it and mix it into the topsoil."

   
   

   

   Steve masley

   Home and Garden Specialist Steve Masley has over 30 years of experience in the creation and maintenance of organic vegetable gardens in the San Francisco Bay Area. Organic Gardening Consultant, founder of Grow-It-Organically, which teaches clients and students the basics of growing organic gardens. In 2007 and 2008 he led a field workshop on Local Sustainable Agriculture at Stanford University.

   Steve masley
   Home and Garden Care Specialist

2. 2 Add a lot of organic material to the soil. You can buy compost from garden centers or use cut grass and leaves from all over your yard. Mulch the soil with them in the fall or spring. It is best, of course, to do this in the fall, in order to provide the soil with natural organic fertilizer, when the leaves have time to rot during the winter.
3. 3 Dig and air your soil every season. For new beds of roses, dig up the soil in the fall and again in the spring with a cultivator or shovel. If you already have roses in your garden, dig up the soil closer to the bushes and loosen it near the roots as much as possible. In doing so, be extremely careful not to damage the bushes themselves.
4. 4 The soil for your roses should be dry and loose (crumbling easily) when you start improving it. Take a handful of earth and squeeze it. Too wet soil will stick together, while too dry soil will crumble.
5. 5 Test how well the soil is draining by digging a hole 30 cm deep and filling it with water. The water should drain in about 15 minutes. If it takes much longer, or if the water is draining too quickly, it is likely that some fertilization is needed.
6. 6 The acidity (pH) of the soil where you plan to plant roses should be about 6.5, that is, it should be slightly acidic. This kind of soil can usually be found in clearings and forests.
   • Test the soil with a home-use kit or send it to your local soil testing laboratory.
   • You can raise the pH by adding lime to the soil if it is too acidic. If it's too alkaline, add garden sulfur. If roses do not grow well, and the leaves turn yellow, the whole point may be that the soil is too alkaline for them.
7. 7 Try adding other fertilizers to the soil, such as bone meal, blood meal, or NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium). The best dosage is 1: 2: 1.
   • Phosphorus helps roses bloom. Avoid too much nitrogen as this will cause more foliage to grow, but fewer flowers.
   • Alfalfa pellets, Epsom salts, fish emulsion, or dung are all good fertilizer options to help the roses bloom.
8. 8 You can take the shortcut and use ready-made commercial soil. If we are talking about a really large rose garden, all this will cost a lot, only just such a soil is saturated with all the necessary fertilizers and is capable of providing roses with lush flowering.