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| Queen Elizabeth is tall, regal, and perfect for cutting. |
This week two people asked me about getting ready to plant roses in the spring.
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| The Fragrant Cloud rose is a hybrid tea with exquisite blooms and perfume. |
Although roses have many sub-categories, the two main ones for planting are the hybrid tea roses and the easy care roses, including the popular Knock-Outs. The hybrid tea roses are best for long-lasting blooms, long stems, and arrangements.
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| Knock-Out shrub roses are magenta, pink, and white. They provide an area of constant, vibrant color. |
The best roses for constant, abundant color are the Knock-Outs, a shrub rose. These roses have shorter stems and looser blooms, so they do not display a long time in a vase. Their blooms are rather short-lived in the garden, but they make up for it by constantly providing a riot of color. Although they are called "self-pruning," Knock-Outs are more colorful when the fading blooms are cut off regularly. They come back quickly after pruning.
A hybrid tea rose will slowly form a bud and very slowly open that bud. Some cut the bud too soon and stop the blooming. Once the five sepals are open, the bud will open completely in a vase.
Cost
All good roses cost about $30 each, unless they are on sale at the end of the buying season (late in spring). The remaining roses will sell for $8-10 each. Buying leftover roses is great fun. They introduce the fussy grower to different types they would overlook in the early season buying frenzy.
Do you want a tree rose or two but blanch at the $50 price? Buy some Jackson and Perkins roses early and they will send messages about leftover tree roses for $10. Wow.
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| Peace has been a favorite rose since WWII ended. |
Earlybirds buy their favorite bare root roses from now until late winter. Some favorites like Peace and Double Delight sell out fast, whether bare root or potted at the local gardening store. Many places are officially out of stock because ordering does not really start for a few months. Ordering during the winter is a good practical idea and a real dream-starter.
http://www.jacksonandperkins.com/ - A few of the most popular roses can be found here.
http://www.waysidegardens.com/ - More variety and explanations can be found at Wayside.
Roses Need Prunes
John 15:1-10 describes caring for a grapevine, but those principles also apply to the rose. The deadwood must be pruned and thrown away. The spent blooms must be pruned so the branches will grow even more. Newcomers are loathe to prune deadwood. They resist cutting off the blooms that are fading into seed. When the seeds are formed (rosehips), the plant completes its work and begins to slow down.
Roses Need Water
I use soaker hoses for roses. They need at least one good soaking per week.
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| Gruss an Aachen blooms in partial shade, but it is not a moss. Do not plant it in deep shade. |
Roses Need Sun - But Not a Sunburn
I like an eastern exposure for roses. They get the morning sun without being roasted by a southern or western exposure. The hottest parts of the yard should be reserved for corn, pumpkins, and tomatoes - not roses.
Roses can do well in partial shade, if they have enough sun. Gruss an Aachen roses are known for tolerating more shade but blooming gloriously in the sun.
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| These little guys will do more for your garden and lawn than all the expensive chemicals put together.http://unclejimswormfarm.com/ |
Roses Need Active, Organic, Wormy Soil
Now is a good time to start preparing an area for roses. Every poistive action done from now until planting in the spring will benefit the roses.
Forget osterizing with a rototiller to make the lawn into a new garden. Newspapers covered by mulch will turn turf into compost, ideal for roses. Because a high percentage of organic matter will feed the soil creatures that fertilize plants by recycling organic waste. The earthworm is the hardest working soil creature and the best known, but there are many others.
Forget bags of rose food. Roses like manure rather than those inorganic salts which ultimately harm the soil.
Roses Need Their Own Area to Grow
Assuming the future rose garden is currently part of the lawn:
1. Cover the area with newspapers. Earthworms dig newsprint. The soggy newspapers hold in moisture and block sunlight from the photophobic worms. The cellulose that makes up newsprint is easily digested by earthworms.
2. Cover the newspapers with wood mulch (Lowe's, Home Depot, Walmart) to keep the newspapers from blowing into the neighbors' yards. Autumn leaves can be used to weigh down newsprint, but something will be needed to keep the leaves in place - such as tree branches.
3. Grass clippings will keep newspapers down too.
4. Mushroom compost can also be placed on top of the soil. I did this around the maple tree base, then covered the area with mulch. The next day, birds had pecked into the new area for soil creatures to eat. That is a good sign, when they detect life in the soil.
5. Thus - soil teeming with soil life, from bacterial to earthworms, will feed the roses. Every pound of organic material added will become a pound of rich soil (earthworm castings) in time. That is why every gardener should put red wiggler earthworms into his gardening areas in the spring.
Buy them here - http://unclejimswormfarm.com/
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| Garlic chives will creep through the rose garden via their roots, and pop up, looking like fat grass until they bloom. |
Roses Enjoy Companions - Garlic or Garlic Chives
Roses belong by themselves, not crowded into another space or stuck along the side of the house. They are roses, not wall flowers. Many gardeners buy their favorites in groups of three or five, for a bigger splash of color, but roses never clash.
The best companion plants for roses are garlic bulbs and garlic chives (one or t'other, not both). Garlic fumes drive away insects and make the roses stronger and more disease resistant. I prefer garlic chives because they spread through the rose garden and are easily harvested for salad, soup, and cooking.
Dramatic Conclusion
Roses are the best possible expenditure in time and money. Our 16 bushes paint the front yard in color and fill the doorway with perfume every morning. Everyone loves getting cut roses, so all my newsprint donors get some hybrid tea roses for collecting newsprint for me. I said to my neighbor, "Here are some of your newspapers back." His wife loves roses. He said, "It is our 53rd wedding anniversary."
Our helper takes home roses every week, alarmed that I am cutting so many. I explain that cutting makes them bloom even more - as John 15:1-10 shows. After a major pruning, where 100% of the blooms were removed, 60 blooms appeared at once. Our roses are new. They will be stronger and more productive once they are established.
Additional Creation Gardening links.
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| Double Delight - order early for a perfumed, bi-color, productive rose. |