How to Grow the Japanese Rosa Rugosa Rose

Find an area of the garden where the soil provides good drainage. This is the only demand the R. rugosa makes of the gardener; slow-draining soil may kill the plant. If puddles remain in the area two hours after a heavy rain, choose another location.

Dig up a 1-foot-square, 1-foot-deep area of the soil. Loosen it until it is soft and no large clods remain. Dig the planting hole the same depth as the pot in which the R. rugosa is growing, but three times as wide. Create a mound of soil in the bottom of the hole.

Remove the Japanese rose from its pot by laying the pot on its side and sliding it out. Gently shake the loose soil from the root ball and use your fingers to tease the roots from the clump. Place the top of the root ball on the top of the mound at the bottom of the planting hole so that the roots hang down the sides. They should barely brush the soil. Make the mound higher to keep the roots from bending at the bottom of the hole.

Fill the hole one fourth full with soil, then add water until the hole is full. Wait for it to drain and then finish filling it with soil. Pat around the base of the R. rugosa with your hands. Keep the soil moist until you see new growth and then begin gradually tapering off. After the plant is established, water it three times a week for 30 minutes.

Feed the Japanese rose with commercial rose fertilizer, available at nurseries, gardening centers and online retailers. Use the amount listed on the label for the size of your shrub in spring and after each flush of flowering. Stop fertilizing eight weeks before the first frost date in your area. The county cooperative extension agent in your region can supply you with this date.

Prune the R. rugosa carefully. The canes and stems are loaded with spiky thorns, so use heavy gloves. Wait until spring, while it is still dormant and there is no danger of frost. Cut off all of the shrub's foliage two weeks prior to pruning. Look for gray canes first. These are old and won't flower, so cut them back to their points of origin. Shape the R. rugosa to the form you desire by cutting wayward stems to within 1/2 inch of a bud. The direction the bud is facing is the direction a new shoot will grow.