FROM THE GARDEN : Great easy roses for gardeners who think they can’t grow them
Posted on Sunday, July 20, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Living/67318/
Roses have charmed gardeners for centuries. Fossil remains found in a slate deposit in Colorado show that roses grew in North America an estimated 40 million years ago. There are about 200 species of roses worldwide: 35 are indigenous to the United States, and 15 or so are native to the Ozark Plateau. Roses were cultivated by the Chinese more than 5, 000 years ago and have been used as confetti, medicine, food, money and to make perfume.
Gardeners swoon over the form, color and fragrance of roses but often won’t grow them because of their perceived difficulty. Roses have to be sprayed and fed special food and grown in their own beds, we think. Hybrid teas, grown for show, get the blame for that bad reputation. Since the first hybrid tea in 1867, their popularity drove the hybridization and introduction of roses. They were bred more for form and color than for fragrance, durability and disease resistance. That trend has been reversed in recent years with the public’s demand for low maintenance roses, such as the Knockout, Easy Elegance and EarthKind series.
I’ve compiled a list of roses suitable for every garden. Many I grow myself, and fellow gardeners have recommended others. If you think you can’t grow roses successfully, this list is for you.
My biggest and best lowmaintenance rose is Carefree Wonder. It is always covered with pink blossoms that are bright medium pink on the inside and light pink on the outside. As the roses open, they flatten out to reveal a light center with a prominent display of yellow stamens. I love their clean, strong fragrance and at its 5- to 6-feet height, the flowers are looking me right in the eye. This rose never drops its leaves in the growing season, so it is ideal for a single, display rose. I’ve also seen it pruned into an outstanding 4-foot hedge. Carefree Wonder has long stems so it also makes a good cut flower. Other members of this series are Carefree Beauty, a solid pink double, and Carefree Delight, a single pink with a white eye.
Rugosa roses, with their thicker crinkly green leaves, defy Japanese beetles and black spot. The two that I grow are hybrids Wildberry Breeze, a raspberry-colored single, and Wild Spice, a white single. They both have a delightful, strong clove fragrance, characteristic of rugosas. These are both big roses, reaching 4- to 5-feet tall and across, but are easily pruned to any size. Their canes are covered with small prickles and thorns, similar to raspberries. The flowers are large and grow in flat-topped clusters with pointed buds.
Hansa is a shorter rugosa shrub with purple-red fully double blossoms producing a good display of orange hips in the fall. Frau Dagmar Hartopp is suitable for smaller gardens because of its shorter height. Her single flowers have silvery pink petals and red rose hips, sometimes appearing at the same time as the flowers. Other famous rugosas are light pink Therese Bugnet, white Blanc Double de Coubert, purple-red Roseraie de l’Hay, and yellow Topaz Jewel.
If you like flowers in brighter colors, I grow floribundas Playboy and Westerland and the large climber, Fourth of July. Both floribundas are large enough to be grown as short climbers or pillar roses. Fourth of July reaches 12-14 feet so it needs sturdy support. Playboy grew from a cutting I took at my friend Gail Pianalto’s house in Tontitown. He’s a big boy, too, at least a head taller than I am. The blooms are mixed coral and yellow and form repeatedly, if deadheaded often. Mine grows on a tall, iron obelisk, which is a good way to give vertical interest to the garden. Westerland is an orange rose that I have trained on our wooden fence at the front of our property. It hasn’t been out of bloom since May. I tie the canes to the horizontal fence posts, which gives them more sunlight, so they produce more flowers. The beetles love the flowers but they just keep on coming. Fourth of July’s flowers are an explosion of red and white stripes and dapples on the semi-double blooms. Mine has grown over the top of my 10-foot pillar. Wrapping it around the pillar is a job to face with fear and trepidation because of its large thorns, but, with its sweet apple fragrance and constant fireworks of blooms, I would never part with it.
Gail is my go-to person for rose questions. She has more than a hundred roses, which she grows successfully without spraying. She gave me a list of her favorite easy-to-grow roses. Many are Hybrid Musk and old roses, which are her specialty. These include dark red William Shakespeare 2000, apricot Buff Beauty, coral Cornelia, apricot pink climber Felicia, Caldwell Pink, Climbing Pinkie and large white-flowered climber, Sombreuil.
Last of all, my newest favorite rose is the buttery-yellow floribunda chosen by Julia Child as her namesake rose. It has a rounded shape and very full flowers with delicious fragrance. In June, the roses completely covered the bush and this month, it is in full bloom again. Japanese beetles haven’t bothered it much and so far, the leaves don’t show any black spot.
I’ve purchased my roses at Lowe’s, local nurseries and online. I’ve bought online from Antique Rose Emporium and Brushwood Nursery and have been very satisfied with the robust size of their plants. The prices range from $ 9- $ 15 for potted roses and less for bare-root plants. With all of these choices, you no longer have any excuse not to grow roses.
Lynn Rogers is a former biology and Spanish teacher who has a passion for gardening, traveling and singing. She is a Washington County Master Gardener and enjoys helping people with their garden problems.