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By now you know that new varieties of roses make it possible for even beginning gardeners to grow beautiful roses. But many gardeners have a hard time thinking of roses beyond traditional rose gardens and cottage gardens. Truly, there is a rose for every purpose. Just be sure to carefully define your purpose, then narrow down the roses that will fill your needs. The trap so many of us fall into is getting wooed by all the beautiful roses out there. We may find a rose that will look perfect in our plan, but requires more maintenance, or sun, or shelter than the planting site can provide. Believing that we can coax the rose into thriving is a mistake, creating extra work that may not even help.
Be patient in your search, find a rose that fits your requirements. Several things should be on your checklist to consider, and most likely you can even find a suitable rose in the color you prefer. Determine the following first:
- Hardiness - do you have the time and interest to protect tender roses?
- Tolerance of your soil conditions - are you willing to amend your soil deeply to accomodate a favored rose?
- Are you willing to commit to a regular spraying schedule or will you need highly disease resistant plants?
- Can you consistently feed and compost “heavy feeder” or do you need feed once in spring shrub roses?
- Will you religiously prune in spring? Many shrub roses require little or no pruning.
- How tall? How wide?
- How much sun?
- How much water? Be sure the watering requirements of plants in a mixed bed are similar.
- Bloom early or late? or repeatedly? or continuous?
Now find the roses that are suited to your specific need. Narrow down your selections by appearance and color. But first things first! Here are some ideas about how to use roses all over your property!
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