Roses can take the heat, as long as they receive sufficient water. One inch of water per week is the minimum. Your roses will perform much better during the summer if they get 6 to 9 gallons of water per week. Pruning: Keep as many leaves on your roses as possible, therefore, prune off the blooms only, especially on small and newly planted roses. Please don’t cut down the canes unless they are over 6-7 feet. Then you can cut off 1 foot or so of your canes. In August you should do a major pruning, see next month’s post for the how to. You can still fertilize with a water soluble fertilizer, such as Mills Easy Feed and/or with some type of organic fertilizer, e.g. Mills Magic Mix, Espoma’s Rose Tone, Jobe’s Organics Rose & Flower, or Dr. Earth’s Rose & Flower. Organic fertilizers won’t burn your roses like chemical fertilizers can. Soil Microbes must break down your organic fertilizer before it will be available to your roses roots. However, unless there is available water in your soil, no fertilizer will be taken up by your rose roots. Small blooms now because of the heat, larger blooms are coming in the fall.
