Soil Prep for Roses

Choosing a Planting Site

• Roses require a minimum of five hours of direct sunlight per day. For best results, rose gardeners should try to plant their roses in a location where they will receive the maximum amount of direct sunlight every day. This should be considered before you even begin preparing your soil for roses.

Digging a Planting Hole

• In order to plant your rosebush in the ground, you're going to need a hole for its root system. Dig a hole that is 18 to 24 inches wide and 12 to 18 inches deep. Save the soil removed from each hole, as you can use it to mix with your fertilizer. Depending on the type of roses you are planting, you'll need to leave some space between each planting hole. Some roses may require as little as 12 inches of clearance, while others may require up to 10 feet.

Using Fertilizer

• Fill the planting hole with a mixture of one part organic matter to two parts plain soil. Mix peat moss and compost at a rate of 1 part to every 4 parts of soil. Manure should be mixed in at a rate of 1 part to every 6 parts of soil. Superphosphate is a product that can be used to stimulate root growth in your roses. Pour 3 oz. of superphosphate into each hole you've dug and thoroughly mixed with the soil in order to achieve the best results.

Soil Preparation for a Rose Garden

• Rose beds and rose gardens are prepared the same way individual roses are planted. When preparing soil for many roses at once, however, gardeners should spade the bed to a depth of no more than 12 inches. Your planting holes can then be dug inside the spaded soil just as if you were digging holes for individual bushes. When applying superphosphate to an entire bed of roses, you would do say at a rate of 7 cups for every 100 square feet of prepared soil.