Fall Rose Plant Care

Proper care of rose plants in the fall will help ensure that
your plants come back strong and healthy next spring.

Roses love the warm days and cool nights in the fall and often
put out their best blooms for fall enjoyment. Fall weather
encourages the plants to form more perfect blossoms, but the
weather can also encourage blackspot, one of the most common
rose problems. Blackspot can defoliate a rose plant, and a
plant that loses its leaves too soon will struggle to survive
through winter. Maintain a regular schedule of fungicide
sprays for your roses until the plants go dormant and drop
their leaves naturally.

Cold climate gardeners should stop fertilizing their roses
in early September. No matter where you live, a general rule
for roses is to stop applying fertilizers one month prior to
the first frost date for your area, or a month before the
deciduous trees typically drop their leaves.

Pruning your roses will encourage new growth and will also
cause the sap to run in the stems. Tender new growth is
vulnerable to winter damage, so rose plants should not be
pruned in the fall. During the growing season, the spent
blossoms should be deadheaded often, and this will also
encourage new growth. But stop deadheading spent blossoms
about a month before the first frost. This will allow the
remaining blooms to develop into rosehips and signal the plant to
prepare for winter and go dormant. Go ahead and cut a few of the
more beautiful blossoms to enjoy indoors if you want, but try to
limit any pruning or cutting of the plant in the fall.