In My Garden Blog
March 6, 2003
New England
By
Suzanne DeJohn,
Candler, NC
Fuchsia Meidiland is a compact shrub with lovely pink flowers and disease-free foliage.
Roses for Any Garden
In some gardeners' minds, roses have a reputation for being fussy plants that require special handling. Reputations are often earned, and, indeed, certain hybrid tea rose varieties, for example, are notoriously susceptible to diseases and need coddling to get them through a harsh New England winter. But let's not throw the baby out with the bath water! There are many roses that thrive with reasonable care and can withstand our harsh winters with no special protection.
What's more, there's a rose for just about every garden situation. Climbing roses can frame a doorway or tumble over a picket fence. Low-growing types, such as the Meidiland series, can be used as a hillside ground cover. A hedge of shrub roses creates a beautiful privacy screen. Miniature roses can be used to edge a walkway, much like you would use annual flowers but without the yearly planting. Roses also fit beautifully into any garden style, as much at home in a rambling cottage garden as in a formal rose planting. The key to success is choosing the correct rose variety.
There are literally thousands of rose varieties. You may have noticed rose descriptions usually come with a classification, such as "hybrid tea" or "floribunda." What's the difference among these classes? How should you decide what to plant? The time to learn about rose classification is BEFORE you go shopping. Otherwise, you may be lured into buying a particular variety based on looks, only to learn too late that it's too tall, too short, or otherwise inappropriate. Here is a brief summary of some popular rose classes.
Hybrid tea roses. These beauties are often featured as single specimens or in a traditional rose cutting garden. The flowers are usually borne singly, one to a stem rather than in clusters, on upright bushes. If you want flowers for cutting, these are your roses. Because of intensive breeding for larger and more perfect flowers in unique colors, hybrid teas often lack the hardiness and disease resistance of their ancestors, and many lack fragrance as well.
Floribundas. These roses have the large, showy blossoms of the hybrid teas, but bloom in clusters rather than singly. The bushy shrubs are most striking in mass plantings. They tend to be somewhat hardier and more disease resistant than hybrid teas.
Grandifloras. Grandifloras are crosses between a floribunda and a hybrid tea. The flower is shaped like the classic hybrid tea rose, but the flowers are borne in clusters at the top of tall stems. Flower size is usually larger than a floribunda. Grandifloras tend to be relatively large shrubs, growing to a height of up to six feet.
Shrub roses. An odd name for a classification, since all roses are technically shrubs, the shrub rose classification is used as somewhat of a catch-all for varieties that don't fit well into the other classes. As a rule, shrub roses tend to be relatively hardy, adaptable, disease-resistant, and easy to grow. Their compact growth habit means that little pruning is required. They tend to bloom over a long season, with blooms at times almost covering the plant. Old varieties of shrub roses tend to be large and rambling, while newer varieties tend to be more compact. Low-growing landscape or groundcover roses are sometimes put into this category.
Climbing roses. The term "climbing rose" is somewhat of a misnomer. Roses don't climb in the sense that vines such as English ivy or morning glory climb, adhering to or twining around a support. Climbing roses are simply rose varieties that tend to produce long, arching canes. Left untouched, climbing roses will form large, unwieldy shrubs. To get them to "climb," you must tie them to a support or manually weave them through a lattice. Flowers are usually borne in clusters.
Rugosa roses. These roses offer exceptional cold tolerance and disease resistance, making them ideal for low-maintenance plantings. They have abundant blooms, attractive wrinkled foliage that is rarely marred by disease, and many varieties produce large, attractive red rose hips in the fall. They also tolerate salt spray, making them a welcome addition to a seaside garden.
Getting Started
As a rule, you should plant roses where they will receive at least 6 hours of sun a day, preferably more. Well-drained soil that is rich in organic matter will provide the best conditions for growth. Of all the roses, rugosas are probably the most adaptable to light shade and less-than-ideal soil. Roses are available in two forms: bare root and container-grown. Either type is fine, and you may find a better selection in bare-root form. Note, however, that it's vital that bare-root roses have been stored under the proper conditions, so purchase from a reputable dealer and plant them as soon as possible after purchase.
If you've hesitated to grow roses because of their reputation as prima donnas, you owe it to yourself to try some of the more adaptable and disease-resistant varieties. Considering the great beauty of their blooms, combined with the fact that there are literally thousands of varieties available in a huge range colors, sizes, fragrances, and forms, it's no wonder that roses are such a popular garden plant!
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