Gardening Tip - How to Grow Roses in Containers, Part 1

      San Diego soil tends to be poor for growing roses.  Either the soil is too heavy and drains poorly (a typical clay soil).  Or the soil might be too sandy or have too much decomposed granite to hold the nutrients necessary for growing great roses.  If you want to grow roses and you have poor soil, you have 3 choices for fixing the problem. 

      You can overhaul the soil and give it the good drainage and nutrients needed for roses.  In March I talked about how to fix poor soil so check on those posts for tips on soil.  Your second choice would be to build a raised bed with retaining wall materials.  A raised bed that is at least 12 inches tall will allow you to plant the roses in good quality soil that you bring in.

      The third choice is to use containers for the roses.  Plastic pots like the ones seen in the photos are great for putting together a rose garden in tricky areas like patios or gardens with rock hard soil.  Another advantage to container rose gardening is that you don’t have to bend down so far to prune the rose.  All of my roses are in containers and I win over a hundred ribbons, along with a few trophies a year from my collection.

      Since I have gone over the 2 minute limit, part 2 will come tomorrow.