Growing Roses In South Florida: Ask Denisa’s Ultimate Rose Guide (Part 1 of 3)

Many gardeners in South Florida overlook roses in their landscape because they feel they are too high maintenance, or that South Florida can be too hot to grow roses. But, contrary to what some may think, Roses can be grown very well in South Florida and are actually extremely heat tolerant. Most major problems, such as the humidity, diseases and root knot nematodes in the soil can be easily bypassed by choosing the right kinds of roses for our region.  Over the next few days we will be addressing the three major rose problems and how to avoid or remedy them to keep your garden roses happy all year long. We will also talk about rootstock and container gardening with roses.

Challenge: Humidity

Although roses are highly thirsty plants that require a lot of watering, they do not like to be wet. Rose plants which are constantly wet, easily produce funguses and other maladies that can quickly strip your rose of its good looks. By choosing disease resistant varieties and the right location for your rose, these problems can be easily avoided and ultimately remedied if need be.

 What you can do:

Choose disease resistant varieties. Most roses sold at your local garden center will have some sort of known disease resistance. But be wary of inexpensive bag roses. These roses who disguise themselves, as bare root roses are usually virus riddled common roses that bare no resistance to disease. They are not bare root roses and they are of very little quality. These roses were not chosen for their ability to thrive in South Florida conditions and many times are mislabeled so when the rose blooms, it does not even resemble the rose you though you were getting.  More experienced rose growers may be able to get one good rose bush out of say, three that were purchased; but do yourself a favor and choose a high quality rose to begin with. It will save you much money and heartache in the long run.

Belinda's Dream is an Earthkind Rose

Choosing varieties that have been proven to do well the south are your best bet. Try the Earthkind series of roses like Belinda’s Dream (above). The Knockout series has also been noted as some of the easiest to grow and old china roses can thrive in almost any environment.

Avoid starting your roses in the dead of summer:  Roses will do better if planted in the cooler dryer season where the amount of water they receive can be better controlled.  January or September are both great times to start your roses in South Florida as most varieties are cold hardy by our standards.  Avoiding planting in the full summer heat and humidity will help your rose to establish itself well before the challenges of a hot and wet summer arrive.

Avoid planting your roses too close together or near other plants. Roses need good air circulation in order to keep molds and fungi at bay.  A good mulch around your rose can also keep moisture from collecting too close to the trunk of the rose and occasional pruning of dead wood or branches that cross one another can help keep black spot and other fungal diseases from forming on your plants.

The Oklahoma Rose does well in South Florida

Plant your rose where they will get first morning sun. This is a great way to insure that any dew formed on the leaves dries first thing in the morning, thus reducing the amount of moisture the leaves retain. Our Oklahoma rose grown in a container (above) gets the first sunlight of the day in on the south west corner of the property and is a great choice for our climate.

 Challenge: Disease

Black Spot is a common fungal disease.

Sometimes you can’t control everything. No matter how much you try Roses will get black spot at one time or another. A rose wouldn’t be a rose without the occasional leaf drop due to the pesky fungus. But not all is lost. Although Black Spot can make your roses look (and probably feel) miserable, it rarely causes the rose to completely die. Luckily there are a number of products out there to help.

 What you can do:

Bayer Advanced makes great products to control rose pests and disease.

In our experience no product works as well as the Bayer Advanced rose care line. In particular their Disease Control for Roses, Flowers & Shrubs spray.  This spray wont “cure” Black Spot, meaning leaves affected by the fungus will fall off and die eventually, but it will keep the new growth from ever getting the disease. We’ve also found that one good spray at the beginning of the rainy season is usually enough at really deterring the pesky problem. Although it says to spray every two weeks, once a month is more than enough in most areas if you follow our other rose growing tips.  The bad news is of course it’s a highly toxic substance that you may not want to work with. This is why we try to avoid the problem to begin with.  With roses, prevention in the first place is your best weapon.

For pest control Bayer Advance also makes a liquid systemic fertilizer and pesticide in one, which works wonderfully as well. Again, it’s a not something we would recommend over-using as many pesticides may have a negative impact on the environment.  Unfortunately, more natural remedies have shown to be much less effective and a one or two time application of a product like Bayer’s may actually be less harmful than constant battling with other less effective products.

 Challenge: Root-knot Nematodes

In South Florida, we suffer from a little pest called the Root-knot Nematodes. These little organisms’ larvae infect the roots of certain flowering plants and vegetables causing stunted growth and flower production and overall degrade the health of roses in climates where frosts are little to non-existent.

The best way to avoid these pests is to heat treat the soil in the summer before planting. This can be a lengthy process and not always practical for the home gardener, so the alternatives are to choose a rootstock that the nematodes are not interested in, or plant your roses in a container.

Check back with Ask Denisa for part two of our South Florida Rose Guide where you can learn what the best root kinds are for our climate!

See more photos of our home grown roses below!

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