Local rose garden opens up and that means it’s time to grow your own

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- On Wednesday, the El Paso Municipal Rose Garden opened for the season. Wednesday was also the first day of meteorological spring. That means it's time to start gardening! Local stores have been selling their rose bushes, and as the weather gets warmer, more and more people like to work on their front and back yards.

When you plant a rose bush, it often comes as a root system with stems and thorns. Not only do you need gloves to plant them, but you also should follow particular instructions on how to plant them to have a successful rose bush.

Eduardo Rascon, who is the County Extension Agent fot Horticulutee with Texas A&M AgriLife, shared valuable tips on how you should be planting a new bush:

"First know your soil, maybe take a soil sample and get your soil tested."

He continued to say, "if you have a lot of rocks, like on the west side, you’ll probably have to dig twice the depth of the container. Remove those rocks, amend the soil with good gardening soil, and then plant your rosebush. That way the rose has a little bit more time to establish, and then it could survive those variable conditions in the soil."

Rascon says the deadline on planting a new rosebush is coming fast- and to plant them within the next week or so. For those of you who may be concerned about more changes in the weather during the weeks to come, he said:

"Roses are very resilient, so they’ll probably come back. What we do recommend is that you don’t fertilize during this month maybe, because fertilizing encourages new growth. And as soon as the new growth happens, and then a cold front comes in, it can burn the leaves, and then the rose wastes those resources to develop and it will have to do it again."

For the people who already have roses, pruning is an important task that must be taken care of. Rascon said around Valentine's Day is the best time to prune, but that, "you can still do it this weekend or maybe the next." You'll really want to prune it down too- don't worry, they will grow back fast. The first bloom is expected in April!

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service partners up with the City of El Paso and the El Paso Rose Society to help take care of the local rose garden. See it for yourself at 3418 Aurora Ave, El Paso, TX 79930 in Memorial Park. For more gardening resources, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office has you covered.