No, this article is not about some revivalist religion, nor an exhibitor praying for a Queen at the next rose show, or even being subservient to your roses (even though most of us are).  Rather, it is a different look at your roses to see what is going on.  A few of us are quite tall and we only see the roses from a bird’s eye view.  From above, we often miss things than our horizontally challenged friends have an advantage over us. 

If you get down to ground level on your hands and knees, you will see a whole new world; one that is quite important for rose culture.  Everything good and bad about rose culture happens at the ground level.  This is where the plant grows from, and brings up nutrients from the soil.  Often, pests and diseases come from the ground.  So you see it is important to crawl around from time to time.

The first thing to notice while on your hands and knees is the general condition of the soil.  Are there weeds to be IDed and removed?  How is your housekeeping practices?  Did you pick up all of the old foliage, trash, clippings, seedlings of liquid ambers, neighbor kids balls, etc?  It is important to keep all rose beds clean of these materials.  Diseases harbor on old rotting foliage and weeds will rob roses of nutrients. 

Next, how about water, are your roses getting enough?  Have you cleaned out your water basins if you use them?  How is your mulch layer?  Check to see if it is thick enough or if you need to add more.  Move the soil around and see if the moisture is adequate. 

Check the soil to see if insects are harboring in the mulch.  See if you have large populations of earwigs or snails.  Do you see evidence of insect activity, such as grubs, shells, etc.?  If so, do you need a soil drench?  How about mold and fungus?  Does the mulch need to be aerated by working up the surface with a hula hoe?  Also, how good is the soil?  Smell it, does it smell nice and earthen, or dusky, rotten, or rancid?  How is the earthworm population?  Alive and thriving, or void?  Maybe consider taking a soil sample and check pH.

Now look at the plant.  How is the crown looking?  See any nubs that need to be removed?  Any signs of crown gall?  Check for suckers.  They can come up from the rootstock, or under the crown.  Dig down and remove them cleanly.  Same for the ones around the crown.  Snap or cut them off cleanly.  Do you have any weak or blind shoot growth that needs to be removed?  Do you need to break off some of the crown’s old bark to encourage new basals?  Are there any problem canes that need to be removed, like older canes while you have new basals growing in it’s place.  Look at the canes, are there cane galls growing on the older canes?  Remove these.  How about damaged canes?  Is there a chance they will form galls?  Is the crown anchored well?  Is it above the grown?  Of course this wouldn’t apply if the rose were on its own roots.  Do you need to prop the plant up?

Look at the foliage from underneath.  How is the color?  Are there any diseases?  How about insect damage?  Do you see signs of good or bad bugs?  See any bristly rose slugs underneath the foliage?  If the leaves are old and turning yellow, remove them.  Actually it isn’t a bad idea to remove the bottom leaves on a rose.  This helps stop the splashing of water that may contain blackspot spores.  If the foliage doesn’t look right, what nutrients is the plant lacking?  Generally, deficiencies of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous show in the older leaves at the bottom part of the plant first. 

How about the center of the plant?  Is there weak growth that can be cleared out and give the rose room to breathe which may help keep down mildew and other fungus. 

So you see that a ground level view of your roses really does give you a new perspective.  This is a good reason that roses in pots can be placed on a table so you have the same view underneath.  And since you are down at ground level, why not fertilize while you are there?