My Garden of Roses in August
Aside from their beauty and intoxicating sweet scents, roses can continue to flower throughout the summer.
If you follow my blog and watch my televisions show, "Martha Gardens" exclusively on The Roku Channel, you may recall I redesigned a new rose bed behind my main greenhouse earlier this year. The 68-foot by 30-foot space now includes three types of roses - floribunda, hybrid tea, and shrub roses - all with gorgeous color, form, and fragrance. And all bordered by lush green boxwood. Now, several months later, the entire garden is thriving.
Enjoy these photos.
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- This garden was completed in spring and already all the rose bushes have grown – we planted more than 120 roses in this space.
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- The entire garden is surrounded with boxwood. Large boxwood shrubs anchor the corners and mark the middle and main footpath of the garden. 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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- Boxwood leaves are evergreen and remain on the plant through the winter. They range from half inch to one inch long and are dark, glossy, and green on top. The back of the leaf is usually a lighter green with a distinct white mid-vein.
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- All of these roses came from Danielle Hahn, author of the new book “The Color of Roses,” published by Ten Speed Press.
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- We planted floribunda roses, hybrid tea roses, and shrub roses. This one is a soft cream. 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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- The leaves of the rose are described as “pinnate” – meaning there is a central rib and then leaflets off to each side, with one terminal leaflet. Rose leaves can have anywhere from two to 13 leaflets. And rose stems are often armed with sharp prickles – they aren’t thorns at all. Unlike a thorn, a prickle can be easily broken off the plant because it is really a feature of the outer layers rather than part of the wood, like a thorn.
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- This garden includes a variety of different pastel colors from pink to apricot to lavender, yellow and creamy white.
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- Yesterday, my outdoor grounds crew mulched the garden. Mulching benefits roses through soil amendment, water conservation, weed control, and disease and insect control.
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- It also makes the garden look very neat and tidy. Here is Phurba spreading the mulch around the roses and in the footpath. The mulch should only be about three inches thick.
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- To produce an impressive show of flowers, always use nutrient-rich compost, composted manure, and other organic and natural fertilizers, such as fish emulsion. Organic amendments also help to encourage beneficial soil microbes and a well-balanced soil pH. I am fortunate to be able to make my own rich mulch right here at the farm.
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- Here is a beautiful 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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- When selecting a location, plant roses in a sunny spot where it can get at least six hours of sun and good drainage.
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- 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 week, we’ve had several overnight showers, so the plants and blooms are a bit wet, but when watering roses, give them the equivalent to one-inch of rainfall per week during the growing season.
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- Here is a gorgeous cream rose – opening perfectly.
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- And here are some just beginning to unfurl. Given the right care, healthy roses can bloom al the way until early fall.
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- And when cutting roses for an arrangement, try to do so in the early morning when they’re fully hydrated.
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- This rose garden is flourishing. I am so pleased with how it is doing. For more great gardening tips on planting and caring for roses, be sure to watch “Martha Gardens” on Roku.
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