Gardening Plants & Flowers Flowers Roses

How to Prepare for Rose Bloom Season

Peak Blossom Is in Spring

Jamie McIntosh

Updated on 09/12/22

Reviewed by

Debra LaGattuta

Fact checked by

Jessica Wrubel

Project Overview

Working Time: 30 mins - 1 hr
Total Time: 30 mins - 1 hr

Skill Level: Intermediate
Estimated Cost: $15 to $30

Roses are one of the most highly prized flowers, but they can also require more care and maintenance than many other landscape plants. A rose bush that is struggling to survive will bloom only sporadically if at all. But if you follow some standard care principles, your plants should reward you with an abundant rose bloom.

Yellow and orange tipped rose blooms surrounded by leaves closeup — The Spruce / Meg MacDonald

Most roses bloom between late spring and early fall, typically taking about six weeks to produce each new set of flowers as the plant continues growing throughout the season. Carefully pruning, feeding, and controlling any pests or diseases on your roses is the best way to encourage new blooms. Maximizing your rose flowers starts with selecting the right planting site, performing important spring care, and continuing until the first frost arrives.

Choosing the Right Rose Varieties

Gardeners often seek out heirloom roses for their hardiness and renowned fragrance, but the older rose varieties don’t rebloom as reliably as modern options. Top choices for roses that rebloom profusely throughout the growing season include:

'Bright Melody': Fragrant, ruby-red shrub rose
'Carefree Delight': Large clusters of pale pink blooms
'Danae': Very fragrant option with clusters of light yellow blooms
'Fairy Moss': Miniature choice with bright pink blooms
'Graham Thomas': Yellow climber with peony-like blossoms
Knock Out family: Easy-to-grow, low-maintenance shrub roses that are available in red, pink, coral, white, and yellow blooms
'Carefree Beauty': Large, light pink double blooms
'The Fairy': Many large clusters of small, pink double to semi-double blooms
'Fourth of July': Climber with red and white saucer-shaped semi-double blooms
'French Lace': Floribunda rose that produces clusters of 2- to 3-inch white blooms with flushes of pale pink
'Sexy Rexy': Medium pink floribunda rose with 2- to 3-inch blooms
'Touch of Class': Hybrid tea rose with 6-inch orange-pink blooms

When to Maximize Rose Blooms

The only time during the growing season you should not be working in some way to maximize your rose bloom is at the very end when you are preparing the bush for dormancy. At all other times—including when first planting in the spring—you should be making decisions based on how they will affect the blooming of the plant. After all, the exceptional blooms are really the primary reason to plant roses.

Tip

A rose shrub's bloom period can vary by species. But in general, roses bloom from late spring all the way into early fall.

Before Getting Started

The right planting site affects the future blossoms of your rose bush before the plant even goes into the ground. Pamper your roses by planting them in a garden location that has excellent drainage and full sun exposure.

Choose a site that receives sunlight for at least six to eight hours each day. Roses need direct sun to generate energy for abundant blooms.

Moreover, test the site's drainage by digging an 18-inch hole and filling it with water. If the water hasn’t drained after two hours, consider building a raised bed or choosing a different site. Roses that are planted in soggy soil are susceptible to fungal diseases and root rot.

Prepare the soil at the planting site by digging an 18-by-18-inch hole and backfilling the hole with a mix of 50 percent garden soil and 50 percent compost and peat moss. This lightweight soil blend encourages the development of feeder roots.

15 Types of Roses for Your Garden

Equipment / Tools

Bypass pruners
Shovel

Materials

Fungicide or pesticide (as needed)
Isopropyl alcohol (as needed)
Balanced fertilizer
Organic mulch

Rainbow sunblaze rose variety plant card held by rose bush — The Spruce / Meg MacDonald

Deadhead Faded Blooms

Rose bushes go through different stages throughout the year. After a weeks-long period of new growth in the spring, the blooming stage will begin. The seed production stage, in which hips form from faded blooms, follows. And then the bush will head into its dormancy stage.

You can prolong the blooming stage by removing faded blooms, a practice known as deadheading. On rose varieties that are capable of rebloom or continuous bloom, deadheading encourages more blooms and also keeps the plant tidy. Cut back faded blooms to the first branch that has five leaves to keep the plant bushy and compact.

Deadheading won't produce additional blooms on rose varieties that are only capable of one flush of blooms, such as the two oldest classifications of roses: the Albas and Gallicas. These roses bloom heavily only once per year but have other advantages, including vigor, a high petal count, vibrant colors, and a rich fragrance.

The Spruce / Meg MacDonald
Control Fungal Diseases

Black spot and powdery mildew diseases do more than disfigure rose bush foliage and cause leaf drop. These diseases weaken the entire plant, exhausting the energy needed to produce bountiful blooms. As the season progresses and temperature and humidity increase, most roses will experience some signs of disease.

Treat these fungal diseases by spraying infected bushes with the appropriate product at the first sign of symptoms. Plus, remove diseased foliage as soon as you spot it, and disinfect your pruners with isopropyl alcohol after making each cut.

Some gardeners also choose to use preventative treatments at the beginning of the growing season to protect new growth. An effective preventive measure is to keep rose foliage as dry as possible by watering only at the base of the plant. Fungi like a moist environment.

The Spruce / Meg MacDonald
Nip Pests in the Bud

Pests decrease the bloom count on roses in two ways: by weakening the plants and by eating the blossoms. A systemic pesticide can protect tender new growth from aphids, mites, thrips, and whiteflies. Systemic pesticides are usually in a granular form that is mixed into the soil; sometimes they are combined with fertilizer and fungicides.

Organic options, such as neem oil or insecticidal soap, can also be effective on rose bushes. And they're especially ideal when your roses are adjacent to vegetable gardens or other edible plants.

Don't forget about attracting beneficial insects as an effective way to control rose pests. Chemicals kill the good insects with the bad, creating an imbalance in the landscape that welcomes more pests. Use pesticide sprays as a last resort, especially if the infestation isn't severe. A few ragged leaves won't significantly decrease bloom count.

The Spruce / Meg MacDonald
Feed Hungry Roses

Like many plants with large blossoms, roses are heavy feeders. Roses that bloom continuously throughout the season require at least three fertilizer applications.

A balanced 10-10-10 fertilizer provides nitrogen for healthy foliage, phosphorus for vigorous roots, and potassium for blossom formation. The first fertilizer application should occur as the plant breaks out of dormancy in the spring. Two more applications in mid-June and mid-July will keep the flower show going. Stop fertilizing in August to allow the plant to prepare for winter dormancy.

Note that water-soluble fertilizer will be absorbed quickly. But granular time-release fertilizer that you mix into the soil will provide a slower and steadier supply of nutrients. Additionally, you can apply nourishing mulches, such as leaf mold, compost, and rotted manure, to steadily release nutrients.

The Spruce / Meg MacDonald

How to Plant Roses

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