Organic Garden Tips for a Rose Garden

Roses. It is difficult to find a person who does not love roses. Their shape, their fragrance, and their colors all have their appeal.

Organic garden tips for a rose garden must preserve that appeal. There is more to organic rose gardens, after all, than pesticides. Your garden must produce the wonderful, fragrant beauty of roses. They may not be perfect roses, but they will be beautiful and fragrant, and you will learn to love the natural imperfections.

Here are 7 organic garden tips to help you grow a lovely rose garden.

Organic Garden Tip #1

Choose the proper rose. Many modern roses are hybrids. They have been fussed over for generations, trying to achieve a long stem, relatively free of thorns, topped with a beautiful, large rose. Choose roses suited to your climate, and resistant to the diseases of that climate. Study the roses you want to grow. Learn what kind of nutrition they need. Learn what growing conditions are best.

Organic Garden Tip #2

Choose the best location. Roses enjoy full sunlight. In hotter locations, they will need light afternoon shade. Make the garden large enough to allow airflow around the rose bushes. If you want them to be especially happy, plan enough space for at least a few garlic plants among your roses.

Organic Garden Tip #3

Feed the soil and the soil will feed the roses. Once you know what nutrients will make your chosen roses thrive, feed those nutrients to the soil. Add a lot of rich humus and keep the soil slightly acidic. The best time to prevent problems for your roses is before you put them in the soil. Make soil conditions as nearly perfect as you can.

Organic Garden Tip #4

Plant your roses according to the recommended time and manner in your planting zone. You can find planting zone maps on the Internet.

Organic Garden Tip #5

Keep their roots cool with organic mulch, and add all-natural fertilizer as needed to meet the soil needs of your chosen rose type. Organic fertilizer should be added in the spring, after you prune your roses. Add it again while they are in bud, and in mid-summer.

Organic Garden Tip #6

Provide them with companions. Your organic roses will fight pests better if they have low-growing friends to help. Plant alyssum, geranium, rosemary, and thyme among your rose bushes to attract helpful insects to your rose garden. Trap aphids with nasturtiums.

Organic Garden Tip #7

Call in the military. Release insects that are natural enemies of rose garden pests. Ladybirds, aka ladybugs or ladybeetles, wage war very successfully against aphids. Ladybird larvae can eat about 25 aphids a day. Ladybird adults can eat over 50 aphids each day. A praying mantis is also ideal in an organic rose garden. Praying mantids devour small flies and aphids, beetles, moths, cutworms.

These 7 organic garden tips will get you started. If problems arise, resist the temptation to resort to systemic treatments. Instead, seek help from one of the many Organic Gardening retailers online.