Growing Roses in Containers: It's Easier Than You Think

Planting & Caring for Your Rose Garden

Roses are a great addition to anyone’s life, home or yard. They add color and beauty and they smell great, but over the years, roses have acquired a reputation as being one of the most fragile and time-consuming flowers you can attempt to grow on your own.

Now you can discover the amazing secrets to growing beautiful roses anytime, anywhere – No matter what your experience level... Planting & Caring for Your Rose Garden reveals tips, tricks and techniques you can use to consistently grow gorgeous, healthy roses with ease!

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Many home owners do not have the luxury of enough space to plant a full garden, so growing roses in containers to brighten up a deck or patio is a perfectly acceptable idea and is easier to do than you might think.

When choosing a container or pot for your rose plant there are a number of considerations you should be aware of:

1) Always choose a pot which is big enough for the root system to continue growing.

2) Make sure the pot has drainage holes in the bottom. If water is not allowed to drain out of the pot, the roots will become water logged and will rot.

3) Plastic pots fare better in very cold weather and are not as prone to cracking as clay pots are.

4) Dark colored pots heat up more in sunny weather causing the water in the soil to evaporate much faster than lighter colored pots.

5) Clay pots are porous and allow water to evaporate faster than plastic pots, but they also allow a certain amount of air flow to the soil and roots.

The procedure for planting your rose into the pot is much the same as for planting a rose into a hole dug in your garden except you have to allow for easy water drainage. Here is the planting procedure:

1) Line the bottom of the pot with a layer of course gravel or small rocks. This is not to help drain water, it's mainly to stop the potting soil falling through (or being washed through) the drainage holes.

2) Prepare a good potting soil mix from commercial potting soil and garden compost.

3) Form a conical mound of potting soil in the container onto which you can rest the rose plant so the bud union (or grafting nodule) sits about an inch below the top of the pot.

4) Spread the roots down and around the mound of soil and then fill the pot with soil to just below the bud union (the soil level should be an inch or more below the brim of the pot). Gently compact the potting soil mix and then water thoroughly.

If you are worried about water running out the bottom of the pot pooling on your deck or patio, place an adequately sized saucer under the pot, but also add some form or spacer between the pot and saucer. The reason for this when you water the rose plant, the excess water will run out the bottom of the pot and be contained in the saucer, however you do not want the pot sitting in this water as the bottom most roots of the rose plant will eventually rot and fungal infections will set in.

When growing roses in containers, always remember that they require watering more often and that soil nutrients are depleted far quicker than a rose growing in a garden so they require feeding more often.