It’s that time of year again when love is in the air and the hearts of all turn to one beautiful flowering plant, the rose.  It’s fitting that Valentine’s Day marks a good time for the late winter care of roses.  Now is the time of year when roses need to be pruned, fertilized and top dressed in anticipation of the coming spring.  Roses may seem to be somewhat imposing, but with the proper gear (rose gloves and a sharp good quality pair of pruners) they can actually be fun to work with.   Pruning your roses comes down to a few simple steps of reducing the size to a desirable shape, removing dead and diseased canes and opening up the center to allow for better air flow. Roses are susceptible to fungal diseases and proper air circulation will help decrease their chances of catching one of these diseases. The best place to cut is just above an outward facing bud on each cane you wish to keep.  A good rule of thumb is to reduce the rose by about 30%, but they can often handle much harsher pruning.  It’s also a good idea to rake up any fallen rose leaves around the base of you plants and discard these.  If your roses have had any disease problems cleaning up last years leaves will help maintain a better chance for health this season.  But it’s not just pruning and clean up that roses need this time of year, they also need to be fed!  One simple approach that roses love, is to sprinkle around the base of the plant out to the drip line (to the width of the rose bush) a good organic fertilizer.  These days high quality organic fertilizers containing bone meal, blood meal, microbes and mycorrhizal fungi can found at most garden centers and even big box stores.  Roses do seem to have a particular affinity for bone meal, alfalfa meal and kelp meal.  All of these contain various nutrients and trace minerals that roses like.  The phosphorous in bone meal is particularly good at promoting abundant and lovely blooms.  After sprinkling your organic fertilizer around the base of your plant, gently cultivate it in with a cultivator or hoe.  A top dressing of compost of 1-3 inches on top of this will provide a nice mulch and continue to gently feed the roses for the rest of the season.  Some summer pruning may also be needed to keep your roses in good shape.   Follow these simple steps and you will have healthy and beautiful roses every year.  If you don’t want to tangle with the thorny little beasties yourself, contact us for our expert organic rose care service.