Beautiful, Fragrant Roses
One thing I love is the intoxicating scent of a garden rose.
I have many, many roses - in my perennial flower garden, in my allée of lilacs, and in a more formal space behind my main greenhouse. I redesigned the 68-foot by 30-foot rose garden last year for three types of roses - floribunda, hybrid tea, and shrub roses - all with gorgeous color, form, and fragrance. And right now, the garden is bursting with blooms.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- This redesigned rose garden was completed a year ago and all the rose bushes are doing so well. 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. Earlier this spring, we added the stone footpath.
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- The smaller boxwood, which I nurtured from bare-root cuttings fill in the rest of the perimeter. 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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- All of these roses came from Danielle Hahn, author of “The Color of Roses,” published by Ten Speed Press.
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- We planted floribunda roses, hybrid tea roses, and shrub roses. These are a soft creamy pink and yellow color.
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- Right now there are gorgeous, fragrant blooms at every turn, some as big as one’s hand.
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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 colors from dark pink to apricot to lavender, yellow, and creamy white.
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- 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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- Garden roses are mostly grown as ornamental plants. They are among the most popular and widely cultivated groups of flowering plants, especially in temperate climates.
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- When selecting a location, plant roses in a sunny spot where they can get at least six hours of sun and good drainage.
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- Rose roots grow deep, so be sure there is adequate room for the roots to spread.
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- I also planted strong disease resistant varieties. Many roses are bred and selected to resist the most common rose problems.
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- When watering roses, give them the equivalent to one-inch of rainfall per week during the growing season.
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- And when pruning in early spring, prune with the goal of opening the center of the plant or shrub to let in better light and air circulation.
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- As part of a yearly maintenance program, also eliminate dead, dying, and diseased plants and plant parts to help keep the garden healthy.
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- Don’t forget to feed. As I often say, if you eat, so should the plants. Keep roses well-fed with a slow release formula specifically for roses.
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- Given the right care, healthy roses can bloom all the way until early fall.
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- This rose garden is flourishing. I am so pleased with how it is doing. How are the roses in your garden this year?
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