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Roses are easy...
to pick, plant, prune & primp
I love Roses so, if roses are easy,
I'm in.
"I'd rather have roses on my table
than diamonds on my neck"
Emma Goldman
They're the most Romantic of all flowers
and roses in my garden gives me joy.
I know many of you think
they're finicky and difficult. I have good news -
"roses really are easy".
Roses are easy if you understand some stuff first:
How Roses grow and why you need to know.
How to pick the right rose - it's not just about sun
How to plant your rose to give
it a long, healthy life
How to prune roses.
..along with a little primping
to keep them gorgeous.
The Scent of Roses
The most divinely scented roses are grown in Bulgaria;
descendants of the ‘Rosa damascena” and most popular
among famous perfumers.
Bulgarian roses are gently picked by hand; peaking in June.
Heavy daily rainfall in Spring prolongs the blooms and keeps
the oil from evaporating… so on rainy days, you may not notice
the scent of your own roses until the sun shines again.
Those glorious old Bulgarian roses are not for the
faint of heart or most of our pocketbooks. But we have
"Modern Roses" - enhanced by science and nurtured
by hybridizers with billions of research dollars.
What does this mean for us?... for the cost of a few lattes,
we can have beautiful, healthy, successful roses
in our gardens.
So much BLISS and so many BLUNDERS !
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I’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t
in my own garden; some from experience and some from
rose experts who have done the research.
My blunders are more like dismal failures and
disappointing losses but I keep on learning
and that's enough to keep me believing roses are easy.
I'd love to tell you my own story, but first,
I really want you to think carefully about roses…boring?
I hope not.
I'll help you make the best decisions about choosing,
planting, pruning and most of all, enjoying your roses.
Always be skeptical about what you read or hear
and explore any and all assumptions
- ask questions and then ask more.
Here are some links: choose what you need first
and then, when you have a moment or two,
pour something lovely and read my story
at the bottom.
ANATOMY of a ROSE(the parts of a rose)
HOW ROSES GROW (why you need to know)
PLANTING ROSES (bare-root, own-root, grafted or potted)
PRUNING ROSES (why, when and how)
DON'T PRUNE ROSES till you read this
PRUNING TOOLS (not all the same)
THORNS, SPINES & PRICKLES (serious "ouch")
A ROSE HEDGE (yes - a hedge)
ROSES IN THE SHADE (some do)
ROSE ROSETTE DISEASE (RRD) (you need to know this)
... oh, when you have a little more time...
ROSE TREES (fussy but worthwhile)
THE FAIRY ROSE: (a favourite)
MOVING ROSES: (or transplanting)
OVERWINTERING ROSES: (for cold winters)
GARDEN DESIGNS...(of course)
My Rose Story
I was hooked on roses the moment I poked
my little nose inside those fluffy petals.
I'm all grown up now and I'm still hooked.
I want every rose I see and although
I have a whole garden of them,
I always think I need more
But along the way,
I made some huge mistakes...
I consider myself a reformed rose-killer.
At first, all I had was a single rosebush.
I had no idea
what I was doing, because
I didn't consider myself
a gardener.
One bleak, stormy day in February,
a big old tree
dropped a huge branch on my fence;
the trunk split down the middle
and the poor thing
had to come down. When the 'tree-man'
said it was few hundred bucks
to take out the stump...
I nonchalantly said," don't bother -
I'll plant a flower garden around it".
It was in the centre of the back yard
with lots of sun, so I plunked a pot
of something bright and fluffy
on the old stump
and put a few nice rocks around it..
.. and then, planted my first Rose Bush.
Its leaves were green, it came in a pot,
already covered with buds. The tag said
it was a "DREAM ROSE-
a Rose that everyone can grow".
Except for me, apparently -
because it died.
It did bloom that year,
but in a pouty fit, this 'dream rose'
refused
to come back the next Spring.
Talk about Fussy!
Perhaps it didn't like where or
how I planted it?
or maybe the harsh winter (Zone 5b)
It was a humbling, hard lesson.
I obviously knew nothing about roses
but I had to learn quickly
or waste more money.
Here, early in that Spring,
my very first Rose Garden.
...and the next year...ooh, la la...
In a local competition, I placed third, so of course
I wanted to enter again. I planted more roses
and asked a lot of questions.
After an inspiring lecture by a nursery owner,
I ticked the boxes of my favourite roses
in his catalogue and drove 50 miles to pick them up.
I pictured rows of potted rosebushes,
ready to burst into bloom.
But, it was a bare little 'office'. I handed in my list
and waited.
Half an hour later, the receptionist came
out of the back room, and in exchange
for my $100 (many years ago),
silently placed a very large,
black plastic garbage bag
in my hand.
I was confused and pretended I knew
what I was doing.
But, when I went to plant them
I found
10 brown, bud-less, leaf-less sticks
with roots!!!
I had never seen a bare-root rose
(see planting roses).
I dug holes and planted each one with
a large dose of hope and
in the next competition....
I placed first.
Well, goodie for me
But, 8 of those first 10 roses died
over the following winter because
I had no clue how to plant or
what to do in the fall.
You might want to look here:
Here's what the judges saw.
If I can grow roses around a stump,
you can grow them just about anywhere
because I'll share what I learned with you
and along with some sunshine,
water, good soil
and of course a large dose of faith,
you too
will find roses are easy.
DON'T PRUNE ROSES till you read this
