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Today, roses grow not only in large areas - even a small courtyard within the city, where it is sometimes difficult to turn around, is rarely complete without several rose bushes. But in Russia these flowers began to be grown not so long ago. Of course, rose hips were grown everywhere in our country, which not only decorated gardens, but were also a source of valuable fruits that have been used for medicinal purposes since ancient times. But here is the first mention of garden roses dates back to the beginning of the sixteenth century. Presumably they came to Russia from the Balkan peoples. Roses grew at the court of Peter the Great, but became widespread only during the reign of Catherine the Second.
Ground cover roses occupy a special place among their sisters. Often they combine two functions - to decorate the area and cover unsightly places, and sometimes even to protect the slope from washing out and erosion. Flowering bushes are not only beautiful, they are very tenacious and durable, and also have a powerful root system. Today we will tell you how to care for the queen of flowers, and we will separately consider the propagation of ground cover roses - after all, not only a professional, but also an amateur beginner can do it.
General information about ground cover roses
All ground cover varieties of roses What they have in common is that they are spreading low shrubs, forming a thick dense carpet of shoots and leaves. They can have horizontal ground cover branches extending for several meters, but rise in height only 50 cm. Or they can be quite tall shrubs up to 1.5 m with very long, flexible, flowing dense branches. Often such flowers are also classified as bush or climbing roses. So don’t be surprised if different sources classify the same variety in different groups.
Ground cover roses were identified as a separate group only at the end of the last century, at which time a real boom in the creation of new varieties began. Two wild species made the greatest contribution to their appearance - Rosehip Vikhura and Rosehip Wrinkled. The first ground cover varieties bloomed once a season and had semi-double or single flowers. Their color did not differ in variety - white, red, pink. Today, ground cover roses can bloom until frost and boast a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes.
Creeping varieties can be grown not only horizontally; a bush looks very interesting, one half of which is spread out on the ground, and the other is raised on a support or wrapped around a pole or a small obelisk.
Planting ground cover roses
You can purchase high-quality planting material, prepare the soil well, carefully care for it, and regularly prune ground cover roses, but if you plant them incorrectly, it is difficult to expect high decorative value and abundant flowering.
Selecting a location
Ground cover varieties of roses put forward the following requirements for the planting site:
- The plant should receive plenty of light most of the day. You cannot plant ground cover varieties of roses in lowlands - they will definitely not get enough sunlight there. Good lighting is especially important in the morning - even light shading is possible in the afternoon. Not a single rose will grow in the shade.
- It is best to plant roses on black soil or light loam with a slightly acidic soil reaction. With the help of simple agricultural practices it is easy to make almost any soil suitable for growing them.
- What groundcover varieties of roses do not like is constantly soaking soils with a high groundwater level. The solution here would be to drain the soil and install raised flower beds.
- Highly alkaline soils are also unsuitable - here you need to make deep planting holes and fill them with specially prepared substrate. The same method is used for areas where roses have already grown for more than 10 years.
- And lastly, ground cover varieties of roses need space. Before purchasing, you need to carefully study their characteristics and allocate enough space for planting them.
Soil preparation
To plant ground cover roses in the spring, the soil must be prepared in the fall. To do this, dig up the area twice to 50-70 cm, select all the roots weed, small stones can be left. Manure or humus is added to poor or depleted soil; acidic soil must be filled with dolomite flour or lime. It is important not to overdo it here - roses need a slightly acidic soil reaction.
If you plant flowers in the fall or didn’t have time to prepare the soil for spring planting the previous year, it doesn’t matter.
Boarding time
Container ground cover varieties of roses are planted at any time, but plants with an open root system are planted in spring and autumn. In the northern regions, planting ground cover roses will be most successful from April to May - the plants will take root well in a short summer and will enter the next season stronger. In the south, it is best to plant them late in the fall - in 10-15 days they will have time to produce thin white sucking roots.
Preparing roses
If you do not plant roses immediately after purchasing or digging them up, you need to dig them in or place the bush in a cool room and cover the roots with damp burlap.
If you receive a ground cover rose bush with an open root system, soak it in water 2-3 hours before planting. It is good if any growth stimulant or humate is dissolved in water.
First remove all broken, weak or old branches and last year's leaves from the bush. Before trimming the shoots, select a healthy outward-facing bud at a height of 10-15 cm and make an oblique cut above it. Remove damaged, blackened roots, shorten the rest to about 30 cm.
Planting roses
Ground cover varieties of roses are able to cover a fairly large area with their shoots, and many of them are able to take root in the knees. Take this into account when planting not only the rose bush, but also when placing other plants.
In grafted plants, the root collar should be buried 2-3 cm. The planting hole is usually dug with a diameter of 60 cm and a depth of about 30 cm. The root can be long or bent to the side - this must be taken into account when preparing the hole. Prepare a planting mixture for chernozems and soils well seasoned with organic matter in the fall, it is composed as follows: take a bucket of turf soil and three handfuls of bone meal onto a bucket of peat. If the soil is depleted or initially low in nutrition, add a bucket of humus.
Place a couple of shovels of planting mixture at the bottom of the hole, form a mound, and spread the roots around it. Then add soil in several stages. Firm it down gently and water generously. For this you will need at least 10 liters of water. Whenever you plant a ground cover rose, form a mound around the seedling.
The day before planting, water the container ground cover rose thoroughly. Then transplant it into the planting hole so that the soil surface is flush with the top of the earthen ball, and add at least 10 cm of planting mixture below and on the sides. Be sure to cover the bush with old newspapers in the middle of the day for the first few days.
Caring for ground cover roses
Roses are resistant plants; usually, when exposed to unfavorable factors, they lose their decorative properties, but do not die. But if you don’t care for them at all for a long time, the flowers may degenerate.Caring for ground cover roses should be systematic; it is not very complicated.
Mulching
As soon as you have planted a rose, you should mulch the soil with peat or humus - this will prevent rapid evaporation of moisture, serve as additional fertilizer, less weeds will grow, and, in general, it will become easier to care for it. It is especially important to mulch well after planting groundcover varieties, since doing this later will be problematic - they will cover the soil with thorny shoots.
Watering
A big mistake is made by those who moisten the soil often and little by little. A well-rooted ground cover rose needs watering only when there has been no rain for a long time and the soil has thoroughly dried out - the long tap root is able to extract moisture from the lower layers of the soil. But if you water it, then do it generously; you need to pour at least 10 liters of water under each bush.
Loosening and weeding
Of course, roses need frequent loosening of the soil, but for ground cover varieties it is problematic to fulfill this requirement. Cultivate the soil while you can and make sure there is a thick layer of mulch under the roots when the shoots completely cover the soil.
Top dressing
Growing ground cover roses requires regular feeding - these plants love to “eat”. Of course, you can keep them on a starvation diet, but then you won’t get long, abundant flowering, and it will be bad for the plant to overwinter. Experienced gardeners recommend feeding roses up to 7 times a season.
Immediately after the winter shelter has been removed from the ground cover varieties of roses, and after 2 weeks they are fed with nitrogen-containing fertilizer. During the formation of buds and before the flowers open, a mineral complex is given (preferably a special fertilizer for roses).
At the end of July, when the first wave of flowering of ground cover rose varieties ends, nitrogen-containing fertilizer is given for the last time. If this element is not excluded, the bushes will continue to grow actively and their shoots simply will not have time to ripen before winter. In August and September, ground cover varieties of roses are watered with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers, which increase disease resistance, winter hardiness and allow young shoots to ripen better.
Roses are very responsive to foliar feeding. Experienced gardeners carry them out every 2 weeks, using a chelate complex, epin, zircon and preparations for the prevention of pests and diseases. Details about foliar feeding We talked about it in an article devoted to caring for climbing varieties.
Pruning and rejuvenation
Probably everyone knows that roses are pruned in the spring immediately after the winter cover is removed. Pruning ground cover roses will not cause much trouble even for a novice gardener. Bushes planted in autumn do not need pruning. In the future, they require minimal crown formation - cut out dead and diseased shoots, correct the shape of the crown. But shoots also age in ground cover varieties of roses.There are two options here:
- You can cut out some of the old shoots every spring. Disadvantage - it is very difficult to untangle the old stem from the tangle of branches without getting hurt.
- About once every 6-7 years they do a short pruning of the entire bush - in the spring they cut out all the branches, leaving 10-15 cm. Disadvantage - for about six months the place where the ground cover rose grew will not look very beautiful.
This latter pruning method actually rejuvenates groundcover roses. Care and cultivation will be much easier if you use it. As you can see, in order to prune ground cover varieties it is not necessary to have even minor skills.
Propagation of ground cover roses
Roses are propagated by cuttings, layering, seeds and budding. Seed propagation is interesting only to breeders - the maternal characteristics of the plant are not inherited; budding is available to specialists or advanced amateurs. For us, cuttings and layering are of interest - they are not difficult even for beginners. Fortunately, it is the ground cover varieties of roses that reproduce well using these methods.
Reproduction by layering
Creeping groundcover varieties of roses can reproduce by layering without our participation - they often take root in the knee. You just need to sprinkle them with soil in the knot and press them down with pebbles or secure them with wire on both sides, and then just water them regularly.
To obtain layering from drooping groundcover varieties in July or August, make a cut about 8 cm long on a mature but flexible shoot, insert a match into it and secure it as indicated above. We water it often.
At the end of next summer or early autumn, we separate the young ground cover plant from the mother bush and plant it in a permanent place.
Cuttings
The ground cover variety is easy to grow from cuttings. At the end of August or at the beginning of September, you need to cut well-ripened green shoots with at least three internodes the thickness of a pencil, making a cut under the lower bud. These will not be apical cuttings - they are much thinner and have not yet ripened at this time; it is even better if you cut off the shoot with a heel - a piece of the stem of the skeletal branch on which it grows.
Carefully break off all the thorns, cut off the lower leaves, and place the cuttings in a growth stimulator for 2 hours. In a quiet, shaded place, dig a groove about 15 cm deep. Fill the third part with sand and place the cuttings in it at a distance of 15 cm so that the bud located under the lower leaf almost touches the ground. Fill the ditch, compact it, water it thoroughly and install a label with the name of the variety. Water and shade the cuttings, remove buds if they appear, and next fall transplant the young ground cover plant to a permanent location.
Watch a video about growing and propagating ground cover rose varieties:
Conclusion
Ground cover roses are the easiest to care for, but they will bring you no less joy than the largest plants. There is always a place for them even in the smallest area, and ground cover varieties can be planted in a container. Love them, and they will answer you with lush flowering until frost.
Very interesting material. I read it with pleasure. In the spring I will transplant my rose from a low place higher. I'll try to cut it correctly. My white non-double rose blooms very quickly. I will fight this. Thank you!