A full blooming thriving rose bush is a wonder to behold. There are over 5,000 varieties of roses in the United States so you have a huge variety of choices. Roses come as shrubs, climbers, creepers, vines, hedges or just as rose beds of pure color. See Award Winning Roses 

First you’ll want to plan your rose garden according to what type of rose your planning to grow. Choices include climbers, tea roses or rose bushes. You may want to design around a color theme and fill in plants to plant around your garden. Complementary colors do well as eye-pleasers to fill in the gaps. Common favorite roses are the bush roses that are shrub like and the most commonly planted type of bush rose being the hybrid tea rose.

Other bush roses include polyanthas (roses in large clusters), the hybrid perpetual (vigorous growers with a great crop in June and continuous blooming throughout the summer) and the fioribundas (large-flowered polyanthas). Climbing rose bushes produce canes that require some sort of support. The climbers include ramblers with long canes for covering walls, fences and ground, pillar roses that can grow near buildings or on posts and the climbing hybrid tree roses.

Roses need around 6 hours of sunlight and ample drainage is vital to success. If the soil is poor replace it with topsoil, last years compost, mixing in manure and bones at the bottom of your bed will do well as a future source of rich nutriments for your roses. Bones take years to decompose and are a future source of nutrition. The best time to plant roses is in the fall, but most forgets and are left with the spring alternative.

The first thing you want to do is inspect the roots and trim back weak or broken ones and be sure to soak them before planting. Dig a hole large enough for the roots to spread out. The bud (the part of the plant where the top attaches to the roots) should be just under the surface soil. Hybrid perpetual and heavier-growing climbers like a heavier clay or loam soils. Teas and hybrid teas, bourbons like a lighter soil with more sand or leaf mold. Rugosas like sandier soil.

Most rose growers like the organic material. Before planting your roses, it’s best to prepare your beds months ahead of time in order to let everything filter out and settle. Plants should be spaced 18" apart. Prune any branches back to about 8" from the soil. Cultivate the roses by pruning and spraying. If you have a good bed chances are they’ll not need watering in the summer. But if they do in hot weather, water the roots thoroughly about once a week.

Spraying roses guards against insects and diseases. Make sure that your roses have good air circulation to prevent mildew. Roses are also susceptible aphids and a simple hosing will rid most of them. Nicotine sulfate also kills the green lice.