FLIMBY: Celebrate roses, America’s favorite flower

This is another installment in our Flowers in My Back Yard series, dedicated to blooming plants.

Another reminder that this has been an unusual spring: Roses have already hit their peak of bloom.

Most years, the first flush is still building up to mass displays the last week of April – the traditional date for the Sacramento Rose Show. This spring, the roses bloomed three weeks ahead of schedule – like everything else.

Nevertheless, the show must go on! Saturday, April 25, the Sacramento Rose Society will host its 78th annual Sacramento Rose Show. After one year in Carmichael, this huge show returns to Shepard Garden and Arts Center in Sacramento’s McKinley Park.

Entries will be accepted from 7 to 10 a.m. Saturday; first timers are welcome. (Make sure to arrive early to get help with entering.) All roses must be home grown.

The show is open to the public from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission and parking are free. Shepard Center is located at 3330 McKinley Blvd., Sacramento.

Directions and details: https://www.sgaac.org/

Besides its displays of hundreds of roses at their peak of beauty, this show also offers gorgeous garden-grown roses for sale by the stem at a bargain price – $1 each or $10 for a dozen. Find some potted bushes for sale, too.

The Sacramento Floral Arts Guild will display arrangements interpreting the show’s 2026 theme – “Happy 250th Birthday, America!” Each category is inspired by “Patriotic Music of America,” such as “Yankee Doodle” and “America the Beautiful.”

Of course, this show is a wonderful time to meet local rose experts and learn more about growing roses, America’s favorite flower.

In fact, the rose (no particular variety or color) is the official flower of the United States. Roses continue to be our nation’s best-selling flower, evoking romance and special occasions.

Gardeners love them, too, especially in California, where this flowering shrub naturally thrives.

Our climate – particularly in the Sacramento Valley – sets up roses for success. We have enough cold in winter to coax bushes into dormancy (the best time to prune) and enough heat in summer to wipe out most fungal diseases (making for healthier, more attractive plants with more flowers).

Why roses? No other flowering shrub offers as much bloom power per square foot. Sacramento roses typically bloom from April through late November or December. They look good in the landscape and great in a vase. (And if not sprayed or treated with systemic pesticides, roses are edible, too.)

Roses offer amazing diversity; more than 30,000 varieties have been named. Their flowers range from tiny micro-minis barely an inch across to huge blooms with more than 100 petals. They come in every color from pure white to deep purple with countless shades of pink, yellow, red and orange in between. (Only blue and black are missing, but rose breeders are working on that.)

Modern introductions are more disease-resistant and easy-care than their Victorian ancestors, making rose growing and appreciation easier, too.

Saturday’s rose show is a wonderful opportunity to discover new rose varieties. See (and smell) them up close.

No matter their size or color, roses need three things to produce lots of flowers: Sun, soil and water.

– Sun: Most varieties need six of more hours of sun to thrive. In Sacramento, roses prefer an eastern exposure and a little afternoon shade; otherwise, their leaves may sunburn.

– Soil: Roses demand good drainage; they hate standing in water. They benefit from loamy, organic-rich soil and mulch. (It helps maintain soil moisture and keeps roots comfortable.) Roses also grow well in pots – as long as they have room for their roots. Rose roots spread as far and wide as the bush’s canes or branches above ground.

– Water: A mature, well-established rose bush needs about the same irrigation as a tomato plant – 5 gallons a week. But once they put down deep roots, roses can be very drought-tolerant and resilient, surviving on twice monthly or monthly deep irrigation. They won’t bloom as much on restricted water, but as soon as they get more to drink, the buds come right back.

Check soil moisture regularly around bushes; many rose problems trace back to poor irrigation (either not enough or too much). If installing drip irrigation around roses, make sure to use multiple emitters per bush, spaced at least on either side or all the way around. If only one emitter is used, the bush will grow in that direction and nowhere else.

– Fertilizer: Roses have a reputation as “heavy feeders.” They’ll consume as much fertilizer as they’re fed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean more flowers. Too much nitrogen leads to lots of leaves and few buds. Chemical fertilizers (such as Miracle Gro) can prompt rapid growth – including weak stems and thin cell walls. Somehow, aphids and other sucking insects know that’s just where to attack.

Instead, put roses on a slow-and-steady growth diet with monthly feeding April through October. Use a slow-release organic fertilizer formulated for roses (it offers trace minerals that boost colorful blooms). Roses benefit from extra phosphate (the middle number on the fertilizer bag’s list of macronutrients).

– Bloom cycle: Most rose varieties will bloom every six to eight weeks in spring and summer. The key: Removing spent flowers. That’s called “deadheading.” Below the spent bloom, trim the stem down to just above a leaf stem with five leaflets, preferably pointing away from the bush. (That’s where a new bloom stem will sprout.)

– Pests: Aphids, as previously mentioned, are the most common spring rose pest. Knock them off with a strong spray of water. Their soft bodies won’t survive the fall.

Or spray them with some homemade bug soap: Put three cloves of garlic in a blender with 1 cup water. Process. Strain. Add 1 teaspoon mild liquid dish detergent (such as Ivory or Dr. Bonner’s peppermint) to the garlic water. Put in a sprayer and squirt directly on the aphids. This solution doesn’t harm the plant (or beneficial insects) and leaves just enough residual garlic and detergent to dissuade more aphids from that bush.

As for rose diseases, that’s another FLIMBY post. In the meantime, check out these tips from the UC Cooperative Extension master gardeners: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7465.html

Going along with their popularity, roses are among the most studied flowers. Learn more here: https://rose.org/

And connect with the Sacramento Rose Society: https://sacramentorosesociety.org/