Lovely roses dotted around an English garden are an easy way to spot when the UK summertime has arrived, with thousands of proud gardeners seeing the flower grow for the first time this year.
Lighting up your lawns in a variety of hues, it’s hard to argue with the fact that, despite having a reputation for being high maintenance, adding roses to your plots will reap rewards.
Caring for the plant once its there is one thing, but growing it to begin with can pose a whole different set of problems to navigate.
Horticultural expert and influencer, Olga Carmody shares gardening tips across her social media, racking up hundreds of thousands of views for some of her videos.
In one of her most insightful tip-sharing clips, Olga warns of the ‘major mistakes’ commonly made when caring for roses during their first year.
“Is there a difference between well-established roses in the garden and a newly-planted baby rose? Yes, there is,” Olga begins, adding that “[in the video she’ll go through] What should we do when caring for that new rose to make sure the longevity of that plant is great.
“The framework of that plant is going to be well-developed for the future, [with] resistance to diseases and the bloom power will be there in years to come.”
Olga explains how, when first planted, the rose will begin developing its root system and get used to its surroundings.
“The soil is new, the climate is new, the sun and amount of rain will be new,” She continues, adding that if a new plant in your garden spends the first year seemingly “doing nothing,” it can be a good sign.
“If a plant spends its first year doing nothing on top, no blooms, it’s a good sign because it’s focusing on developing a strong root system.”
Olga cites this as one of the more frequent mistakes made by impatient planters who may look for quick solutions when they don’t see immediate results, and not allow the plant to anchor itself into its new environment. And the one thing you must not to do is forget to water it.
“What can you do [to fix this issue]?” She asks, “You have to stay on top of watering…for the first year, you have to water that rose a lot. I don’t mean every day a little bit, I mean deep watering [to devlop the root system].
“Water deeply, not every day, but still enough to make sure the soil is still full of moisture, not water-logged. The second thing you can do for your rose is fertilisation.
“New roses have to be lightly fertilised…we don’t want to harm it with fertiliser that can be too strong for the baby rose.”
Elsewhere, Olga recommends not trimming your young roses too much, adding that “light pruning” is adequate if they are growing long stems or getting in the way.
“You don’t want young roses to push growth and waste that energy on something not important for a new rose [away from the root system].”
