Understanding how often to water roses and how to deliver water to the plants is crucial to their health. Water is vital in distributing nutrients. It travels up the canes (depositing nutrients for new stem and flower growth) and down (to build a more robust network of roots).

The circulatory system of the rose is not immune from challenges. Chief among them is the loss of water from pores in the leaves. This process is called transpiration, and when underwatered roots can't keep up with the plant's watering needs, it wilts. On the other hand, overwatering starves the roots of oxygen, and the lower leaves turn yellow and fall off.

How Often to Water Roses

1. Give your roses 1 to 2 inches of water each week in a single watering session from early spring through fall. Increase the frequency to every three or four days in hot and dry weather. Porous soils will also benefit from additional deep soakings.

2. Soak the soil to a 16- to 18-inch depth since sprinkling does more harm than not watering because the roots won't grow deep enough to support the plant. Lightly-watered plants are more easily injured by cultivation and more prone to fertilizer burn.

Water Roses Well

1. Check the watering depth to ensure it reaches the roots when determining how often to water roses. Water for a measured length of time and dig near the roots. If the soil is moist to only 8 inches, you should water twice as long.

2. There are several options for the water application method. Your choice will depend on your location, the size of your garden, the need for water conservation, and other factors. Among your options are drip irrigation, underground sprinklers, or hand watering.

Drip or low-volume irrigation is an efficient method that releases water to your plant without runoff. You can place an emitter on each side of your rose, use manufactured drip collars, or fashion your own with perforated drip tubing. Conventional spray headsdirect water up onto the foliage, removing spider mites, which live on the underside of the leaves. Low-volume mini-sprays apply water more economically but don't do as well in wetting the foliage.

3. If you're hand watering, you may want to consider using a bubbler attachment. Flooding a basin around the rose allows water to soak slowly into the soil and prevents a strong stream from eroding the soil or splashing dirt and mulch onto the foliage. (Bubbler heads attached to underground systems accomplish this task more conveniently.) Apply a 2- to 4-inch layer of mulch on top of the soil to slow the evaporation of water from the soil. Mulching also insulates the ground in winter, so it freezes and thaws gradually, which prevents plants from "heaving."

Roses in Containers

1. Give more attention to roses grown in containers than those grown directly in the garden because they have less soil from which to draw moisture.

2. Check the moisture depth in the pot at least every one or two days during the summer to determine how often to water roses—every day when the weather is hot or windy. Unglazed pots lose moisture to the air more quickly than those made of plastic or glazed pottery. You can also put one container inside another to reduce moisture loss, but be sure the outside container has drainage holes.