Rose Growers Key Terms

Know common rose growers key terms to ensure the best service
By Darcy Chadwick When you become a rose grower, it's vital to know the different rose terms to help you produce beautiful, healthy flowers. If an outside company decides to hire you to provide flowers for its arrangements, you must know how each key word plays a roll in your business. No matter if you own a large commercial rose company or a smaller nursery, if you are not knowledgeable when it comes to roses, your customers will find another business that's up to par.

Sport

A sport is a spontaneous mutation that ultimately creates a new rose. For instance, climbing roses are a sport of bush roses. Other common changes in a sport involve different colors or number of petals.
Try:  Learn more about sport and how it pertains to roses by visiting the Regan Nursery.

Black spot

Black spot is a common fungal disease that attacks roses. Small black spots form on the leaves, and the leaves turn yellow and fall from the plant. Black spot tends to occur during warm, humid weather.
Try:  Visit the University of Maine to learn how to manage and prevent the spread of black spot on roses.

Prune

To prune a rose means to remove woody material from the plant. It's best to prune a rose by removing dead and diseased wood and then selectively trimming the remaining plant to form the shape of the plant.
Try:  Ventura County Star has an online video demonstrating how to prune a rose.

Propagation

In order to produce new varieties of roses, you may want to use propagation, which involves growing the plants through seeds. Asexual propagation or reproduction occurs when you take the cuttings from a parent plant and create a clone plant.
Try:  Check out the Temecula Valley Rose Society to learn more about rose propagation.

Deadhead

When you deadhead a rose, you remove the spent or already-bloomed flowers from the plant. This prevents hips from forming. It also encourages the rose to continue producing flowers.
Try:  To learn more about how to deadhead roses, visit Rose Magazine.

Hips

Hips do not refer to the rose grower but rather the plant. They are the colorful fruit inside the rose flower that is full of vitamin C, although there are certain varieties of roses that do not produce hips. When dried, you can use hips in herbal teas or make them into syrups and jellies.
Try:  Visit Rose Gardening 101 to learn more about how deadheading roses affects the hips.