My experience with Roses

I'll be honest with you guys and I'll start by saying that I am terrible at growing Rose plants.

I'll share everything I know about this beautiful plant and you guys can share your experiences too.

When I was a kid we lived in a house that had a big space with trees all around. I was a curious kid and I would spend my free time observing the trees around.

We had a Badam tree, a Imli tree, an Ashoka, a Hibiscus and a few teakwood trees.

As we lived there for years we added a few other plants too.

But this post is not about the other plants but about my experience with Rose plants.

We always wanted to get a rose plant. One day way back in early 2001 or 2002 a door to door seller brought different types of seeds and we bought a few Rose seeds.

We were excited about it and I still remember the whole family was in the front yard planting these Rose seeds.

The were small but thick. They were dark brown in colour and we planted them.

We waited patiently for days and nothing came up. Nothing happened. No sapling, no sign of a rose, yep! I thought the plant would grow with a rose because each time I saw a rose plant on tv or at around someone's home I always saw a rose on top of it.

Weeks passed and we were all impatient and we wanted to know what happened.

Someone dug the seed up when I was not around and they said the seed had a tiny green sprout on it.

Oh! Damn... We lost the only chance of sprouting a rose plant.

Years later one of our relatives gave us a rose cutting and it never grew. I was heartbroken and never again tried to grow a rose plant.

My Mom brought a few but they didn't live long.

Many years later I got a light pink rose and it caught my eye. It was beautiful and I loved it.

It was perfect.

I took it home. Planted it in a pot and I got obsessed with it.

I watered it regularly. I added compost to it and cut the roses once every few days.

This is when I started to learn.

The trick is to understand the plant. There are different types of roses and some of the most common rose plants that are available here in India are the Dutch rose, English rose, Native Indian rose and a few others.

The Dutch and the English roses grow in a cool weather and they are grafted into an Indian rose. Since it is grafted the plant is a bit weak. It is not as healthy as a plant that has been grown out of a seed.

Grafted plants often get attacked by fungus. Too much water and they rot and too less water they die.

The first trick that I learnt was not to get the grafted area too wet. It should not be buried too deep. The grafted portion must always be at least two three inches above the soil.

Also, rose need sunlight. Give it sunlight as much as you can and it will grow well.

Cutting the branches works well too. It helps the plant grow new shoots and that means more flowers.

Red soil works well for roses. I have grown them in both red and black soil but red soil with vermi-compost helps it grow well.

Recently I added a few grams of NPK and a few plants died. So, next time I'll try to reduce the dose. I usually do not used chemicals fertilizer but the rose plants were not growing well so I had to add and it works well but this is still an experiment for me.

You can see how well the plants are doing. I'll write another post someday soon.