Hi I’m Dave Epstein, this is Growing Wisdom and I want to introduce you to flower carpet. It’s actually a rose developed by a company called Teslar. Of course to get any plant to grow, you have to plant it properly. And today, we’re going to talk about how to plant flower carpet roses.
The first thing you want to do, select the location. We’ve chosen to plant these along the walkway. Each one of these flower carpet roses will stay about only two to three feet high and they’ll spread out looking really beautiful as you walk along the walk. After you bought the rose, be sure it’s been properly watered. If it’s a little bit dry, water it before you plant.
Next, dig the hole about 12 inches deep and about 12 inches wide. Pop the plant out of the pot, tease the roots a little bit. That means you take some of the soil away from the roots. That’s going to help the roots have better contact in its new location. After you’ve dug the hole, put the rose in the hole and add the soil back in. You can use the same soil that you took out of the hole if it’s good soil. If not, we suggest you amend it with a little bit of pit or compost, pack the soil around the rose, be sure there’s no air pockets around the roots. I like to use the back of my little trough to really get the soil nice and tight.
Next, take some of rose food that comes with the plant and just scatter it around the top of the soil and finally, water it in. Keep it moist for the next few days. Don’t let it dry out. Let it become established. They are after being short, it does get adequate moisture throughout the growing season. About three quarters to an inch of water per week.
The plants really are self-sufficient. Some even call these an environmental rose. The all blossoms drop off and mix them with the molt, you really won’t see them. They’re very resistant to disease and other problems. If you’ve been reluctant to grow roses before, flower carpet is a great plant to grow because it is virtually maintenance free. There’s tons of colors. Amber, pink supreme, scarlet, pink, white, apple blossom, red, coral, and yellow, wow! In all those colors there certainly a color for you. Some of the other advantages of the plant, wonderful, shiny foliage which looks super in any garden. They can be grown in almost any type of soil. You don’t have to prune them and they’ll bloom from late spring all the way through until frost.
You can plant these next to a walkway or roadway. They’ll even take road soil. This is certainly not that fussy rose your grandmother grew. Today, we’ve chosen to plant along the walkway no matter where you plant these roses. They’re going to flower for you for years to come.
