Easiest Roses to Grow for Beginners

Five Unusual Rose Tips that Really Work

• Plant lavender at the base of rose bushes if deer are a problem in your area. Deer are attracted by rose scent, and lavender muddies the rose aroma.
• Dump coffee grounds and used tea leaves around bushes. Both acidify the soil slightly, which roses love.
• Bury banana skins or even the entire black, mushy banana at the base of bushes to provide magnesium, an element plants crave.
• Scratch two tablespoons of Epsom salts into the soil around a rose. The salts make flower colors more intense.
• Use rabbit food for fertilizer. The pet food is composed of alfalfa meal, which supplies a growth stimulant, nitrogen and trace elements to roses. Scratch in ½ cup of pellets around each rose and water well.

Read more about landscape roses and disease-resistant roses.