Overwhelmed with rose growing/caring advice? What to do?? Who to follow??? When entering the rose world or any new thing you want to try your hands on, you may be in a place where you feel so lost in the rose universe and not sure where to begin.
In today's digital age, while information is just at a tip of your fingers...Google search, Facebook groups, YouTube and more, it feels so overwhelming. Isn't that odd that we can feel lost and overwhelming at the same time? Having too little information can be as frustrating as having too much information.
When you start searching, it feels like you start going down that deep rabbit hole.
Been there..done that.
You will also see the same people asking the same questios in different FB groups although they've been given many advice already. Why? They continue to seek what they want to hear or the advice that will resonate with them.
After months of me personally going down the rabbit hole and come back to a surface myself in my early days, I have a few tips to share so you can get clear and find the resource that feels just right for you.
The thing is when you see many different advice, that only goes to show you there is more than one way in growing and caring for roses. To me that's a great news! Why?
For years, one reason that stopped me from wanting to grow roses was due to the advice I heard long time ago.
Roses were finicky, disease proned and high-maintenat plant. To grow them, it is necessary to spray them with fungicide, insecticide and etc in our hot and humid climate ROUTINELY, ALL YEAR ROUND. While that wasn’t a bad advice. It just didn't resonate with my situation.
To others, that is not a big deal. Definitely doable. Let's do it!!
To me, that's IT!! At that point on life, my stress level was through the roof already with life and to add the spraying schedule for a hobby?? I was looking for a hobby to de-stress, not to add more work to life. And if that's the only way to grow them, then I would have to say bye.
So I just decided not to grow roses.
Here's the thing. When you see different advice out there, it tells you that there will be a solution that fits your needs and lifestyle. That's a good sign.
Here's the steps:
1) Know what you want first.
Don't do things out of fear or guilt. What I meant by that is some people want to start a no-spray garden just because they feel guilty of harming pollinators or using chemicals, not because they really want to do.
What's going to happen is when you start going down the path without a strong and clear want/goal, you are not going to like the disease and pest damages that you see. That will easily discourage you to carry on.
There are in fact many different pest and disease management solutions for roses our there that you can find the right one for you. You can try organic, systematic and more.
You will also realize that some tips won't work, why? It just doesn't work for your situation, your busy schedule, your lifestyle, your core beliefs, your expectations and many other factors.
Ask yourself what will work best for your lifestyle, family schedule, work schedule and etc. What's important to you? Perfect looking blooms and foliages at all times or most of the time? Keep asking until you get clear on your wants.
2) How you ask your question MATTERS.
If you go to a FB group asking a question, you will get many different answers. People often ask how often to water roses during summer and here goes 5 different advice.
Water everyday
Water twice a day everyday
Water every other day
Water 3-4 times a week
Water 2-3 times a week
Oftentimes people throw out advice without knowing what your circumstances are. Are your roses in ground or pots? Are they in full sun? When did you plant? Be specific with your questions when you ask so that will (hopefully) help narrow down answers.
3. Experiment for yourself and see what works. Start small first.
Back to the watering advice example. If I followed the advice to water my roses every single day in this heat, I can tell you that I would feel burnout by day 3 and wanted to quit rose gardening.
While watering roses everyday may benefit your roses, but what's the point if you don't enjoy it?
The same goes to the advice to fertilize every week or every other week and all other advice out there.
Listen, watch, read then weight options and decide what will work FOR YOU and if that's doable without feeling forced. Most of all, listen to yourself..you have the answer deep inside, you just can't hear it because there's just so many noises out there constantly and you don't pay attention to what you really want to do.
Afterall, gardening is about experimenting and having fun. Having a community of people to share and learn from can be an added bonus or just too much. You just have to fine the right medium to enjoy your rose journey.
Tat
Connect with me on Instagram at @Rosesinhouston or Roses In Houston on YouTube
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