Flower Gardens

» Cottage_Garden - Rose tips -- moving to new thread

Roses, well, I just started a series of articles on how to buy a "good" healthy rose. Getting a good start is important. I'll write more about roses in future articles.

Roses need lots of sun, good drainage (ie not a damp soggy wet spot) and good air circulation. Those are the main requirements -- and start with a healthy good quality specimen of a variety suited to your area and your garden maintenance routine.

Hybrid tea roses are the fussy ones of the bunch but recent breeding seems to be heading toward finding disease and pest resistant varieties even among those. I wish they would hurry up!

Try a landscape or shrub rose such as Knock Out or Bonica for easier care and lots of blooms.

If you are in a colder winter area such as zone 6 or colder, plant roses grown on their own roots rather than grafted. If you plant a grafted rose, you will have to take special measures to protect the graft from the winter cold.

Rugosa roses are very easy to grow, they are very cold tolerant and actually hate to be sprayed.

The Buck roses are also very cold tolerant, sturdy plants.

I'll move this to a new rose thread.

-- posted by Cottage_Garden