If you feel as if there is no one out there who is willing to explain the basics of growing roses, YOU ARE NOT ALONE.  Not that long ago I knew absolutely nothing about growing roses, so I know exactly how you feel.

I will take you through the basics on this page and will add more pages as I go along.

BASICS:

1. How to choose what rose to buy.
If you are a first time rose buyer, I can strongly advise that you start with a rose that is easy to look after and that will give you instant pleasure.

When buying your first rose bush please be aware of the following:
Roses can be grown either from a rooted cutting. This means that the rose is growing on roots that are its own roots. These roots may get sick easily and may not be able to give the rose all the food and water that it needs to grow quickly to its true size or be able to flower well.

Roses can also be budded onto a wild rootstock. A wild rootstock is a wild rose that can grow in almost all conditions and has very strong roots that do not get sick easily and that will be able to supply the rose bush with enough food and water to grow quickly and flower well.

When a rose is budded onto this wild rootstock, what that means is that this rose is made up of two parts. The first part is the wild roots and the second part is the rose that is growing on the wild roots. Now we have a rose that has very strong roots and is able to grow much better because it gets more food and water from the wild roots than it would have from its own roots.

There are many people that grow rose cuttings and then sell them cheaply. My advice is stay away from these roses. A rose bush can easily grow for 25 to 30 years, so it is worth the expense of paying slightly more for a properly budded rose bush. This does however not mean that you should pay through your neck for a rose bush either.

There are rose growers that feel that that roses are almost a luxury and that the price paid for a rose bush should therefore be punitive. This is also not the truth. Somewhere between buying a poor quality rose bush and a very expensive rose bush lies the happy medium.

My personal feeling is that roses are something that everyone should be able to afford and enjoy in their own garden. The price and quality of roses should be such that we should all be able to have numerous roses in our gardens without feeling that we need to take out a second bond.