Escape to Beauty and Joy: Roses

Choosing the Rose That Speaks to Your Heart and Your Garden

At this time of year Hyannis Country Garden is fully stocked with many kinds of roses. Some shop for these plants based on the color of the flower, while others select according to their fragrance. Many of our customers want a rose that repeat flowers or is especially disease resistant, but others are shopping for a plant that won’t get very tall. Fortunately, there are roses for all customers; read on to find the variety that’s best for your heart and garden.

Shrub Roses, AKA Landscape Roses

Some of the most popular types of roses are the shrub or landscape varieties. These have been bred to be disease resistant and repeat flowering. Although a shrub rose might get some black spot fungus in moist, cool weather (pretty much the definition of a Cape Cod spring) they tolerate it and seldom are defoliated from the disease. Shrub roses come in a variety of sizes and colors. Most don’t have much fragrance, but a few of the newer types have been selected because they do have some scent. If you’re looking for a rose that repeat flowers and is less demanding, look for these landscape roses. Popular brands include Knock Out®, Oso Easy®, Drift®, Easy Elegance®, and Flower Carpet®.

Roses For Fragrance

Many people want to grow a rose that is fragrant. Since scent can be subjective, a good way to shop for a rose with good fragrance is to come into the nursery to stop and smell the roses. Most hybrid tea and floribunda roses are fragrant, and the David Austin® brand chooses its selections for their perfume.

Climbing Roses

We call them “climbing roses” but they are simply varieties that grow tall stems. Those stems need to be trained or tied to a trellis or arbor, as they don’t hold onto structures by themselves. Ramblers, aka rambling roses, also have long stems, but their flowers are usually smaller and in clusters. It’s often the rambling roses that you see growing up and over houses on Nantucket. (Common varieties include American Pillar, Dorothy Perkins or Dorothy Improved.) Since the ramblers typically bloom once, they are currently less popular since many newer climbing roses produce flowers later in the summer as well.

Rose “Trees” aka Standard Roses

Roses that are grafted on the top of a long, straight stem are referred to as tree-form or standard roses. These can be planted in a garden as a focal point, or in containers for patios and decks. Mix some Rose-tone fertilizer in the area or into the potting soil before you plant these small trees, and clip off the wilted flowers as they finish, since that will stimulate more blooms to form.

Choose Roses That Make You Happy!

Some decide to plant an entire rose garden in the sunniest place on their property, while others grow roses in their foundation beds, perennial gardens, or in pots on their deck. Roses can be added to a cutting garden or even in raised beds formerly used for vegetables. As long as you have a sunny location, you can grow a variety of these lovely plants.

Roses Flower on New Growth

Since roses bloom on new growth, keeping the plant healthy and happy is essential to a good show of flowers. Fertilize with Rose-tone three times during the growing season, top dress the area with an inch of compost before mulching, and water these plants deeply once a week. (Water container grown roses when they are dry, which can be daily or every other day in hot weather.) Treat insects or powdery mildew problems promptly; if you’re unsure about what you’re seeing on your rose plants, take an in-focus picture and bring that into the store for identification and treatment options.