How to Grow Miniature Roses Outside

Planting

• 1

  Choose a well-draining location with at least six hours of daily sun. Do this several months before you intend to plant the roses.

• 2

  Take a soil sample from the site, and send it to your local extension office for testing. Miniature roses perform best in soils with pH readings between 6.5 and 7.5. Implement the extension's recommendations to correct the pH, if necessary, and to make the soil suitable for roses. Wait until you plant the roses before adding phosphorus or bone meal to the soil.

• 3

  Use a measuring tape to lay out an area for your miniature roses in the prepared bed. Space the plants 12 to 18 inches apart. Putting several roses of the same variety at the front of a border maximizes their effect. Place them far enough away from taller plants that shade won't be a problem.

• 4

  Use a spade to dig holes wider and deeper than the containers for each of your miniature roses. Reserve the soil. If your extension office recommended raising the soil's phosphorus level, add 4 to 5 tbsp. of bonemeal or super phosphate to the bottom of each hole.

• 5

  Remove the rose from its container. Gently untangle and spread the roots so they'll have maximum soil contact.

• 6

  Center the rose in the hole. Replace the reserved soil, tamping with the spade as you go to remove air pockets. Add enough soil so the rose is equal with, or slightly below, the lip of the hole.

• 7

  Water the rose well with the garden hose.

• 8

  Mulch the bed to maintain soil moisture and discourage weeds.

Maintenance

• 9

  Give your miniature roses 1 to 2 inches of water each week to encourage maximum bloom. Keep the soil consistently moist, but never saturated. Don't wet the foliage. Water early enough in the day so the plants dry before dark. This reduces the risk of fungal infestation.

• 10

  Feed your roses with balanced rose food at half the strength recommended for full-sized roses. Clear mulch from around the plants with a cultivating fork. Apply the rose food after the plants leaf out in spring. and at three-week intervals until late summer. Water and replace the mulch after you feed the roses.

• 11

  Spray your miniature roses with chlorothalonil or triforine fungicide every week to 10 days to ward off black spot and powdery mildew. Douse the foliage with a strong blast of water every other day week to remove aphids and spider mites.