This is our time of the year! The June Rose garden is spectacular. Here in the Northeast, despite May and June weather that’s cold and rainy, the roses are blooming.

Within two weeks, rose gardens will be a mass of color. Now is the time to get out and visit the gardens near you.

Fertilizing the June Rose Garden

But don’t forget your own roses. It’s time to fertilize them again. Use about cup of 10-10-10 or 5-10-10 fertilizer scattered around the base of each bush. Scratch it in, then water it well.

While you’re out in your garden, pull up those few weeds. A good layer of mulch put down earlier will make the task easier.

Roses Need One Inch of Water Each Week

Don’t let the rainy weather fool you. Too often it seems like we get more rain than we actually do.

A good investment is a rain gauge. For many years, I had a simple tube rain gauge mounted in the garden. I recently upgraded to a wireless unit that is mounted outside and it sends signals to a unit that is mounted inside on a wall. So now, at any time, I can see how much rain the garden has had and the current temperature. It also stores the last nine days’ rainfall information so I can tell if the garden is getting its water.

The Correct Way to Cut Rose in June

I’m sure you’ll want to pick some of your beauties to bring in the house.

Take a look at the stem you’re going to cut and look at the place where the leaf meets the stem. At that point you should see a small swelling. This is the bud eye that will become the next stem once you cut just above it. The direction that this bud eye points is the direction that the new stem will grow.

You want to cut just above a bud eye that is pointing toward the outside of the bush. Continuing to do this will give the bush a vase shape that will give air movement to the center of the bush.

As soon as you’ve cut the stem put it into a container of water. Bring your roses inside and arrange them in vases and you’ve brightened up your home.