Planting a New Rose Garden at My Farm
One thing I love is the intoxicating scent of a garden rose.
I hope you saw my latest episode of "Martha Gardens" exclusively on the Roku Channel. In the show, I share my tips for planning, planting, and caring for roses. Not long ago, I redesigned a new rose bed behind my main greenhouse. The area was previously planted with some rose varieties, foxglove, and lots of tulips, but we moved them and prepared the 68-foot by 30-foot space for three types of roses - floribunda, hybrid tea, and shrub roses - all with gorgeous color, form, and fragrance. The roses came from Danielle Hahn, author of the new book "The Color of Roses," published by Ten Speed Press. It was a big project, but our entire team worked together and got it done excellently.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Here is the garden bed once it was cleared of old plant roots and weeds. This bed is located just behind my main greenhouse where it can be closely watched and maintained.
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- We already planted large boxwood to mark the middle and main footpath to the garden. Here, a line is put up to mark the four sides so it could be re-edged.
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- Then the soil is rototilled with our dependable Troy-Bilt Big Red 306cc 20″ garden tiller.
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- The entire garden is surrounded with boxwood. Large boxwood shrubs anchor the corners. These smaller boxwood, which I’ve nurtured from bare-root cuttings fill in the rest of the perimeter.
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- Buxus is a genus of about 70 species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. Boxwood is native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
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- And here are all the roses – more than 120 – still in boxes and ready to plant. Danielle says she prefers to plant potted roses because “one can see what one gets” – look for healthy, robust leaves that are free of disease and insects.
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- Using landscape twine as a guide, they were all lined up in straight rows according to mature growth pattern, variety, and color.
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- Each rose is placed exactly where it will be planted. And here the digging begins. Watch “Martha Gardens” to see the map of this beautiful and formal rose garden.
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- When planting, make sure the hole is slightly wider but equal in depth to the rose’s root ball. This will generally be about 15 to 18 inches deep by 18 to 24 inches wide.
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- Nutrient rich compost or garden conditioner is added to each hole.
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- And then some good quality fertilizers. The primary nutrients that all plants need are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Nitrogen encourages healthy, vigorous leaf growth. Since a rose’s ability to make flowers is in its leaves, healthy foliage results in more flowers. We also added a specific rose fertilizer Rose-Tone, azomite, and bone meal.
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- Here, Pasang removes a rose from its pot, teases the roots to stimulate growth, and then places it into the designated hole.
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- Pasang makes sure the top of the root ball is about an inch above the edge of the hole. He also looks to see that the plant is straight and the best side faces the front of the garden.
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- With so many plants to get into the ground, it was all hands on deck – we had a large team digging and planting.
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- Here, Phurba stands from a distance to make sure all the rose plants are planted in straight lines.
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- We planted floribunda roses, hybrid tea roses, and shrub roses. This one is a soft apricot color.
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- Hybrid tea roses, also called large-flowered roses, usually have only one flower per stem and tend to flower in three flushes from summer to late autumn. Floribundas or cluster-flowered roses have many flowers per stem and tend to repeat-flower continuously from summer to late autumn.
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- We included a variety of different colors from pink to apricot to lavender and even yellow and creamy white.
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- And here’s a darker pink rose. A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae. There are more than a hundred species and thousands of cultivars.
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- Here is a beautiful light yellow rose blooming. When selecting a location, plant roses in a sunny spot where it can get at least six hours of sun and good drainage. Fertilize them regularly and water them evenly to keep the soil moist.
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- Here is a white rose with a hint of pink. We also planted strong disease resistant varieties. Many roses are bred and selected to resist the most common rose problems.
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- This rose bed is sure to bring years of color and beauty from hundreds and hundreds of roses. Watch “Martha Gardens” on Roku to get more of my tips and to see the entire process of planting the garden – it’s a great show.
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