The Romantic Rose Garden!

Hello!

Who doesn’t love a romantic rose garden? I have always loved the looks and smell of roses. The rose has been called the queen of flowers. When I was growing up my mom had a rose garden. She was a member of the American Rose Society. She would enter her roses in contests and would win ribbons. I have always been around roses most of my life. You don’t need a big rose garden to enjoy roses, there are small rose garden ideas you can do too. Just a couple to complement any garden or have a dedicated rose garden. The rose bush is a great companion plant to clematis, annuals, bulbs and evergreen shrubs.

In this post I will discuss the six easy steps for starting your romantic rose garden, the rose classifications according to the American Rose Society, the different rose names for each classification and how to care for your rose garden.

Six Easy Steps for starting your Romantic Rose Garden

1. When choosing your rose bush, make sure there is one blooming rose. This way you will know what the peddles will look like and the fragrance. Look for rose bushes that are low maintenance and a bush compatible with your hardiness zone. A climbing rose may take more maintenance then a regular bush type.

2. Build your own trellis or arbor. It’s not as hard as you think. Just use material that will complement your garden aesthetics.

3. Placing the trellis or arbor. The trellis will need to placed on an angle. Create an area for a sitting area or birdbath, having a spot to sit and smell the roses. Keep roses away from walk ways to not snag clothing on the way by.

4. Prepare the garden bed. Dig the holes 2 times the size of the rootball but the same height.

5. Roses love full sun, so make sure your spot has at least 6 or more hours of sunlight, with well-drained, organically rich soil.

6. Soil should be moist but not drenched. Roses like to keep their feet dry so to speak and not sit in water,

Classification of Roses

The American Rose Society recognizes 35 different classifications and puts them into 3 categories;

Species Roses – this rose is the “wild” rose and found in a natural setting. May only have a single or 5 petal(s) and grow on shrubs ranging from 2 to 20 feet tall. These roses only blossom once a season, early summer, and are fragrant. These roses tend to be very disease resistant. Most of these are climbing roses.

Old Garden Roses – Also called Heirloom Roses or Old Fashioned or Antique. Any rose that existed before 1867. The old fashion roses, many have strong fragrances and some bloom only once in early summer. Varieties of old-fashioned roses including shrubs and climbers, also included are tea and China roses.

Modern Roses – Existed after 1867, the hybrid tea rose, named, “LaFrance” was growing in the garden. Most of the roses today are 80% modern roses. The blooms are usually one bloom to a long stem. Bloom cycles every 6 to 7 weeks

Species Rose Types

The species rose is the only rose that come true from seed. These roses grow in the wild and natural areas. The species rose is a bush type rose-bush, and some climbing. These roses have colors of white, pink or red.

Names of Species Roses

• Prickly Wild Rose
• Prairie Rose
• Smooth-Rose
• Dog Rose
• Carolina Rose
• Rosa Glauca
• Multiflora Rose
• Shining Rose
• Beach Rose
• Silky Rose
• Climbing Rose

Old Garden Roses

The old garden roses, Heirloom, old-fashioned roses or antique roses, these roses are also divided into 2 more categories; Heirloom roses; Alba, Ashyshire, Damask, Centifolia, Galica and Moss, these bloom once each growing season, and in early summer. The repeat bloomers; Bourbon, China, Hybrid, Noisette, Portland and Tea,

Names of Heirloom Roses

• White Rose of York
• Ayrshire Rose
• Bourbon Rose
• Cabbage Rose
• China Rose
• Damask Rose
• French Rose
• Hybrid Perpetual
• Moss Roses
• Rosa “Blush Noisette”
• Portland Rose
• Tea Rose

Modern of Rose Types

Shrub Rose – Large, spreading and easy to grow. This bush produces many blooms. Height and width 5 to15 feet. Many that are cold hardy.

Long-Flowered Climber – this has long arching canes and a great variety of blooms, different colors and forms. These can be trained climb a fence, trellis or arbor. These are similar to rambler roses, are hardier with smaller blooms.

Miniature – is a scaled down version of the hybrid tea and floribunda roses. These grow 15 to 30 inches tall, except micro mini’s that grow only 6 to 8 inches tall.

Grandiflora – similar to hybrid tea, has smaller blooms in clusters

Floribunda – Large clusters of color, short stemmed flowers. Has continuous blooms all season.

Plyantha – Compact but sturdy shrub rose. This bears large clusters of small flowers

Care of your Roses

When purchasing your roses, make sure you are planting according to your hardiness zone. For the cold climates of zone 5 and lower there is a mounding process. After the first frost, mound up mulch and soil, 12 inches over the base of the bush. This will help protect from the harsh cold. Roses like full sun, in deep, well drained fertile soil. Watch for black spot, mildew, rust and cankers. Roses need rich soil with plenty of organic matter. If your soil isn’t enriched, then add some compost or well-rotted manure. Roses like soil a little on the acidic side, 5.8 pH to 6.3 pH, neutral is 7 pH. Keep the garden clean, this will help keep away bugs and disease.

Pruning – use sharp pruners and make cuts on an angle, 1/4 inch above an outward-facing bud. Remove any shoots that emerge from below the graft. Each spring cut off any dead canes a few weeks before the plants leaf out. Snip back any that are growing out of balance. During the blooming season, pick off the side buds of hybrid tea roses if you want the largest blossoms, leaving only the tip buds. Remove all flowers as soon as they start to fade. Each group of roses have their own pruning specifications for maintenance and renewal of the buds.

Insects and Disease – Look at your plants frequently for signs of disease and insects harming your rose bush. Viruses, powdery and downy mildew, rust, black spot, cankers and other disease are possible invaders with a long list of insects and spiders mites, aphids, rose chafers and Japanese beetles. Use organic spray otherwise you could poison our pollinators, bees, hummingbirds and butterflies.

Happy Planting!

As you can see roses might not be for the beginning Gardner. If you are just beginning, I would only plant 1 or 2 rose bushes and see how you do first. There is a lot of things that can make our rose bushes sick. Again I can’t advocate enough to use organic sprays for flowers and vegetables, to protect the hummingbirds, butterflies and bees. I hope I planted some rose garden ideas of how to create a rose garden.

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Cheers!

Chris