What do we need to do to maintain our roses during late spring and into summer?

For hybrid teas, it is common for some of those blooms to become spent and gather botrytis due to excessive moisture.

We need to do a little bit of pruning, and that can be undertaken when you're actually cutting roses as a cut flower as well.

If you go back from where the stem emerges and count five nodes up, make a cut at 45 degrees–just above the node–and you can remove that flower.

That will then leave you with ample foliage for the rose to photosynthesise by and produce another flush of flowers over summer.

So if you do that to the entire bush, you will end up with a rose that's been slightly pruned and well maintained, encouraging good, strong, and new growth. 

To get that new growth going, I would use Sudden Impact for Roses. This is a granular fertiliser and rose growers swear by it. You can also get it in a liquid form. 

As you’re pruning, just keep your eyes peeled and look across your roses to see if there are any signs on the new growth or the old foliage of things such as these little sap sucking insects here, the aphids. 

We could use a soapy water spray just to control those, but it's not a big population.

You could just remove them by squashing them with your fingers if you're inclined.

So for rose maintenance, regular tip pruning or deadheading keep them fertilised over late spring and into summer.

Make sure you have ample moisture and if you watch out for fungal diseases and insect pests, your roses are going to look just as stunning as all of the ones in Peace Park.

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