Make The Most Out Of Your Rose Garden By Cutting The Roses
Tending a rose garden is definitely a labor of love, but it is certainly worth the work because the rose is a kind of flower that eagerly returns the love that is given it.
A great thing about having your very own rose garden is that you can enjoy it any time you want, especially when it is the season for blooming roses. Some owners of rose garden hate the idea of having to cut away the blooms unless it is part of the pruning process.
However, this objection does not make sense to other rose gardeners. True enough, you do not have to sit in your rose garden all day just to be able to enjoy it. The best way to take advantage of having a beautiful rose garden is to cut the flowers and use the cut roses to decorate the home. In this way, you are bringing the beauty of the garden right in the heart of your domicile.
Bringing the Rose Garden Inside the Home
Roses, especially the hybrid tea variety, are meant to be cut. They are meant to be cut, put into a vase and be admired for their beauty no matter where they are placed inside the house. Cut roses in a vase add a touch of elegance in a room, no matter how drab the room may look. An arrangement of cut roses in a vase makes a lovely centerpiece on the dining table. Three cut roses in a slender vase placed on a desk or a side table where you can easily look at it can serve as a reminder that you are loved. Waking up to the sight of cut roses in a vase on your bedside table can cheer you up for the rest of your day.
And these are just about the visual beauty of the roses. Their smell is another thing altogether. The scent of rose blooms can be heady to the senses. For some people, it is a very relaxing scent. For many others, the scent of cut roses has the opposite effect energizing, seductive and romantic.
Cutting the Roses
If you have a rose garden and you want to enjoy the beauty of your garden even while you are indoors, there is nothing to stop you from cutting your roses and making flower arrangements out of them. You have to remember, though, that you do not just cut a rose right from the plant. There is a proper way of doing it.
Roses are best cut late in the afternoon, perhaps after 3:00 PM. Cutting roses at this time of the day will ensure that the flower itself has enough food reserves stored away, which will make it last for as long as it is possible.
Another thing you need to bear in mind when cutting roses is to cut only rosebuds that are just starting to open. These just-blooming cut roses will have a longer vase life. Also, there is always something magical about watching a rose bloom right before your eyes.
Make sure that the pruners you use to cut your roses are sharp, clean and free from rust. Using dirty or rusty pruners is a sure-fire way of making your roses sick and of spreading disease among the plants.
Setting the Cut Roses
Once you have your collection of cut roses, put them to water immediately after cutting. The best way to do this is to lug along a small bucket full of water to dip your cut roses in right after you snip them off from the plant. Again, this extends the vase life of your cut roses and prevents them from the shock of being disconnected from their food and water supply even for just a few minutes.
When you are arranging your cut roses in your vase, make sure that the vase you are putting these roses in does not have a design that will compete with the beauty of your roses. A vase with a subdued design will enhance the loveliness of the cut roses.
Never cut away all the leaves from the stem of your cut roses. Leave three or four of these leaves above the water line on the stem. In this way, your cut roses will continue to be fed by these leaves, thus elongating their vase life.
Another method you can use to extend the vase life of your cut roses is to put them in water that has been mixed with a floral preservative. If you do not have a floral preservative at home, just mix the water with some lemon juice and a teaspoon or so of sugar.
Maintaining Cut Roses
No one likes to see wilting roses. If the cut roses are wilting way ahead of its time, it means that the stems are clogged and could not bring enough nutrients to the flower head. To liven up your cut roses again, you should snip at the ends of their stems and soak them in a container filled with warm water. Let them stay in that warm water for about an hour.
Make it a point to replace the water-and-lemon solution you have in the vase of your cut roses as soon as they become dirty. Most of all, to extend the life of your cut roses further, keep them away from direct sunlight.
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