A sunny site and a soil that drains quickly of excess moisture are the two prime promoters of good health and fullsome flowering in roses. Avoid sites in close competition for light, water and nutrients with trees and large shrubs, and allow adequate spacing for good air circulation around the plants. PLANTING Before planting a rose, dig the site over deeply while incorporating some organic matter such as compost or composted manure into the soil. Then dig a hole wide and deep enough to receive the roots without crowding them. Prune away broken or injured roots and positions the rose on a pyramid of soil piled into the centre of the hole. Arrange the roots over the soil cone and make sure they are all heading straight down. Watch for the bud union on the plant. That's the knobbly swelling between the roots and the base of the canes, where the rose variety has been budded on to an understock. Though the best position for the bud union at planting is a point much disputed among rosarians, there is some consensus for settling it one inch below the soil surface. Firm the soil around the roots and water thoroughly before the planting hole is completely filled in. Check the bud union's position, and finish infilling around the plant. Though container-grown plants can be planted at any time, the very best times for planting roses are in October to early November, and late February through March.

A well-pruned rose bush fights disease and insects better.

FERTILIZING Except perhaps for a little bone meal, do not fertilize a rose at planting. Wait until the plant is well established and growing well. Fertilize established roses in the spring following pruning. If you prefer to use natural-source fertilizers look for pre-mixed organic fertilizers at garden outlets or farm supply stores. These are made, or can be home-made, with natural materials such as blood, seed or fish meal for nitrogen, bone meal or rock phosphate for phosphorus, and kelp meal or greensand for potassium. WATERING Most modern roses will thrive only in a deeply and evenly moistened soil. Soil-level watering with soaker hoses is ideal, as this allows the foliage to remain dry, a condition which effectively inhibits disease. If you do water with overhead sprinklers, do it early in the day so that the foliage dries before evening. PRUNING The ideal time for a rose plant's major pruning is just as growth buds show their first signs of swelling at winter's end. At this point the reactivated energy flow within the plant will work to heal cuts quickly, and it's easy to see where fat buds are located on the canes. Begin pruning Hybrid Teas by removing dead, broken, blotched or otherwise clearly diseased growth. Cut these branches back to healthy growth, where the centre pith is white and clean looking. Make the cuts immediately above an outward-facing bud. Next remove any weak, spindly growth, branches heading in to the centre of the plant, and the weaker of crisscrossing or crowded canes. Aim at ending up with four or five of the strongest, youngest and healthiest canes on the plant. The last pruning step is to shorten these remaining canes. Just how much to shorten them is a disputed point, but a moderate approach is to remove between one third and a half of the cane's length. Make these cane-shortening cuts one-quarter inch above a bud that points outward, away from the centre of the bush. Cut at a 45-degree angle, the high point above the bud and the slant downward towards the plant's centre. Grandifloras such as Queen Elizabeth, and Floribundas, are pruned in much the same way, though floribundas can be left with more canes for a more densely massed display of color from the flower clusters. Modern climbing roses that bloom repeatedly through the active growing season need only the removal of any old framework canes that have lost their vigor. Then cut back the side shoots growing off these main, framework canes to two or three buds. These side shoots bear the flowers, and keeping them cut back promotes good blooming attractively dislayed along the trained pattern of the plant. The same steps as for pruning Hybrid Teas can be followed for pruning the head of a tree rose, except that special care needs to be taken to head back evenly with each other the canes chosen to remain on the plant. This will help ensure a symmetrical umbrella of growth and flowers atop the trunk. Prune rose bushes for further bloom production as you gather flowers for the house in summer. Do this by cutting the flower-bearing stems back to a five-segment leaf. The first few leaf stems below the flower will often bear three-part leaves. But it's the growth buds nestled where five-leaflet stems meet a cane that will elongate into the best flowering growth. PROBLEMS Regular monitoring is invaluable for spotting problems before they take a firm hold on rose plants. If an insect pest or disease infestation is caught at its earliest stages, control is usually possible without the use of pesticides. Aphids are tiny, oval, soft-bodied insects, usually green, that cluster mainly on soft growing tips and flower stems. Spray them off the plant with a jet of water from the hose, and apply a followup spray to catch any malingerers using an insecticidal soap. Spider mites are almost invisible pests that suck juices from the foliage causing it to become colorless and dry. Mites thrive in hot, dry weather. Wash the plant thoroughly, early in the day, at the first signs of infestation. Let the plant dry, and spray with an insecticidal soap formulated to control spider mites. Powdery mildew is a fungus disease that appears as a fine grayish white film on leaf surfaces. The disease spreads quickly when cool, damp nights are followed by warm days. That's why the disease often becomes severe towards summer's end as nights become cool. Shade, crowding, inconsistent watering and allowing the plants to go dry at the roots can set rose plants up for this disease. Remove infected leaves at the first signs of the disease, and trash them. Follow the cleanup with a mild fungicide spray such as a sulphur-based product. Black spot produces circular black spots with fringed margins on the leaves. Left unchecked, this fungus disease can defoliate a rose plant. Wet leaves, warmth, and splashing water foster its spread. Pick off and destroy all spotted leaves as soon as you notice them, and then spray with a fungicide. Clean up and trash all fallen foliage both during and at the end of the growing season. Keeping infested foliage picked off rose plants and maintaining a clean soil surface beneath the plants are the principal defenses against disease. WINTERING ROSES After one or two hard freezes, mound the bases of bush roses to around 12 inches with shredded bark, dry sawdust, or soil from another part of the garden. This extra protection of the bud union will ensure that a portion of the named variety's canes will survive even if the top growth of the rose is frozen in an unusually harsh winter.

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