Practical Rose Gardening: How to Place, Plant, and Grow More Than Fifty Easy-Care Varieties by Inger Palmstierna

Author:Inger Palmstierna
Format: epub
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC
Published: 2014-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Modern roses in an old-world styled setting. Stones cover the ground around the roses, which are surrounded by a small brick ledge that is covered in plants. It looks just like a small hedge.

Cover material that requires fertilizer

Another option is to cover the ground with a layer of material thick enough that weeds can’t penetrate it. Groundcover bark and wood chips are commonly used for this because they contain weed inhibitors. Covering the ground with bark mulch and wood chips does require extra care, though; since they’re both natural products, they will eventually break down and molder. A lot of nutrients are needed for this decay to take place, and these are leached from the soil. None, or at least very little, nutrition is then left over for the roses, and if there is competition for nutrition, the bark mulch will always come out ahead. You will therefore need to fertilize your roses regularly, and in extra quantities. The more the mulch bark disintegrates, the more like earth it becomes. If you decide to forgo using a fabric cover, you’ll need to set down a thick layer of bark mulch, which will cause the roses to get a later start in spring. If you do use fabric underneath the layer of bark mulch, then the layer needn’t be so thick, but then you’ll still need to apply extra fertilizer.

Cacao mulch has only recently been made available in Sweden. This mulch breaks down in the same way as wood chips. It’s a byproduct of processing cacao beans, and consists of the thin shells from the beans. The shells contain substances that make the material bind into a hard crust. It stays put even on a slope, and doesn’t blow away when dried out. Cacao mulch darkens with age, and ends up looking like soil—very dark brown in color. You can add cacao mulch in the fall to protect the plants from the winter cold, but even cacao mulch needs extra fertilizing.

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