My David Austin Rose Garden

Ahhhhh I have been meaning to write this blogpost since last year!! My favorite current subject: DAVID AUSTIN GARDEN ROSES!!! I have been gardening for three years now, it’s safe to say that it has become my newest obsession. There is nothing like growing these beautiful ladies, their beauty just makes my heart so happy. 

When we first bought the house, I planted 14 peonies!! I knew nothing about gardening, just that I wanted lots and lots of flowers. After the first season I quickly realized that peony season is beautiful but oh so short! So, I moved to my second favorite flower: roses.

I bought my first rose at Home Depot, and after the first bloom I was in love! It was at this time that I started following Gracerose Farm on Instagram and decided to start growing some of the David Austin roses she recommends. Now I have around 25 roses. Not a huge number, my garden space is very limited. But plenty to keep me busy and to provide lots and lots of flowers. Each year they get better and better. These pictures are from my garden in 2021, where most of my roses were in year two. They are still babies but getting better each year. I have also added new roses this year, which I’m so excited about!

Now, growing garden roses is not for the lazy gardener. You can not just plant and forget lol. It seems that every single bug and disease are attracted to my babies!! It’s pretty annoying. So today I will share some tips for growing roses that I have learned in the past three years.

Where to Buy David Austin Roses

Most of my roses were bought straight from David Austin Roses. Roses do sell out quickly. So in the fall, once David Austin opens for orders I place my order to be delivered the next Spring. 

Planting Garden Roses

Preparing the soil for your garden roses is probably the most important step in growing beautiful roses. On my first year I just dug a hole and threw my roses in there… Little did I know that my soil is hardcore clay with terrible drainage! I almost lost a couple of roses due to the drainage issues. Now, this is what I do:

1- dig a hole big enough to fit the bare root comfortably and fill up with at least three gallons of water. This will test your soil for drainage. If it drains within an hour or two you are good to go. If it takes longer than you have drainage issues. Roses love water, but they hate sitting in water. To fix my drainage issues I now dig the hole ever deeper (another foot?), I add xxx at the bottom of the hole. To plant the rose I do not use any native soil except the top part of it (if it’s in good shape). I mix fresh potting soil with tons of compost and the top original soil. Now, you want to make the whole substantial, so it has plenty of room to drain. Another thing I do is to plant the rose with the graft above the soil level and then put more compost on top. That way, the rose is not planted super deep and has less chances of being waterlogged. Top with compost or mulch or both!

2- If I have it in hand, I add EB Stone fertilizer and Mycorrhizae. These will help the rose get stablished.

Watering Garden Roses

The next thing you need to do is water your roses correctly. In my first year I watered my roses so much that they almost died 😂😂. I had no idea what my soil composition was, so I had no clue that it did not drain well. Therefore, is a good idea to get to know your own soil. I did a soil test for that. Now that I know that my soil is clay and it does not drain well, I’m very careful with my watering. For roses, they recommend 1in of rain per week. I keep a close watch on the weather and only water as needed. Different soil types will have different water needs. If your soil is sandy, you will probably need to water a lot more than I do. When it has not rained during the week, I aim to give four gallons of water per plant per week. But I do two gallons at time because of my drainage issues. Again, make sure that you get to know your soil well to decide what is best for you.

Feeding Garden Roses

Roses are heavy feeders, and I like to have lots of blooms right away! So, I’m pretty heavy handed with my feeding regime. You can also follow what David Austin roses suggest or follow Grace Rose farm regime. Here is what I usually do:

Springtime– Right when I prune my roses and do the spring cleanup, I will feed my roses with Rose Tone. This is an organic slow release fertilizer and takes time to breakdown. Therefore, it will only be available to the rose when they are actively growing.

Liquid feed– Once the roses have a couple sets of leaves on them, I will apply a liquid fertilizer like Fish emulsion. I will do this maybe once or twice in the beginning of the season. When they start to form buds, I start feeding every two weeks with this fertilizer.

Once the roses have leafed and have a full set of leaves, I apply a granular fertilizer like the David Austin roses food.

Foliar fertilizer- This is just an added bonus for the roses. I spray them with Kelp, or this plus I will add to help the plants fight disease and pests. This is done every two weeks, preferably at end of day and when there will be no rain or super-hot days ahead.

Do you need to do all of these things? Probably not! I just like to pamper my roses, and since they are still pretty young, I think this routine has helped them perform very well early on.

Controlling Pests & Disease

I try to be mostly organic with the treatment of pests and diseases. I have not had much black spot, I only get a little bit at the end of season when the roses are getting tired. I mostly follow what Grace Rose Farm suggests on her rose care guide. Once we have had our first frost I go ahead and remove all leaves, specially if the rose is showing signs of disease. 

After all the leaves are removed I spray a dormant spray + copper fungicide. I will repeat this process after I prune the roses in spring. I also make sure to clean the beds well in spring, removing all the leaves and applying a thick layer of mulch. 

Pets is something else that you will need to deal with if you are growing roses. For Aphids I don’t do much except sometimes if it is a lot of it I will spray with the hose. 

Last year I had a pretty bad infestation of Thrips which ruined my second flush. So this year I will apply some Spinosad n the roses once they start budding. Once the buds are a pea size, apply every two weeks until they are opening. Please note that once they have infected the roses that is not much that can be done. If you see that you have Thrips, remove all the open roses and discard them in the garbage or burn!!

Again I try to follow what Gracerose Farm suggests on her guide. After all, she has been growing roses successfully for many years!

All the photos above are from last spring. I did a little video of what the garden looks like this spring!! Each year it gets better and better. I hope this post inspires you to grow a rose or two!
With Love,
Ceres