Written and edited by Tammy 26th May 2024
With the hot weather now well behind us and Winter almost here, we’re all busying ourselves back out in the gardens.
Autumn/Winter is traditionally the time of the year for planting all things deciduous, and bare root roses, fruit trees and ornamentals are now trickling into garden centres and nurseries everywhere.
Last season I wrote a couple of posts sharing hints and tips on bare root trees, but this time I want to share with you some ideas and suggestions that might help with selecting the right roses for you.
With so many to choose from it can be a little overwhelming knowing where to begin!
Choosing that perfect rose
When you shop online for something the first thing you do is 'set your search filters'. This narrows down the search to just the size, colours or fragrance that's relevant to you and the order of importance to you.
Try to apply that same analogy when you're ready to start looking for your roses.
Create a list of what's important to you and the order of those preferences from 'most' important to the least.
Colour.
The colour of the rose is most often a biggie.
Consider things like the existing colour scheme within your garden, you'll want to compliment that. If it's a brand-new garden and you're starting from scratch, putting your roses in first might be what sets the theme for everything else you plant.
Fragrance.
Fragrance is another important one for a lot of folks.
In some people’s eyes a rose just isn’t a rose regardless of its beauty if it has no fragrance.
If it’s fragrance that’s important to you, search primarily for the fragrant roses, then choose colour you love from within the fragrances you love the most.
Size.
Roses come in a multitude of sizes and varieties to fit different situations.
Carpet roses as the name suggests, are a ground cover rose. They grow between 30-60 cm tall and spread to cover an area of upto a meter. Perfect for borders and fillers.
Bush roses, depending on the variety can be maintained as small as 60cm tall right upto 2 meters.
Standards are most commonly seen as 3 foot patios for smaller areas and 4 foots. Best suited to formal gardens, driveways, fence lines and entrance ways.
Weeping standards are grafted onto taller 140cm to 180cm tall root stock. They make for a lovely stand-alone feature in the middle of a lawn to make a statement. A real showstopper in full bloom, when their long arching canes cascade over gracefully.
Climbers are exactly that, they spread, ramble and cover a large area in no time. Perfect for covering arbours, archways or on a trellis for screening out a shed or fence.
Name.
Since the beginning of time, roses have been given great names of significance. It may be in honour of their breeder, in celebration of an occasion, or to commemorate someone of stature "The Queen Elizabeth Rose".
If you're buying a rose to gift to someone, search for a name with relevance to the occasion, "Mothers Love", "Golden Jubilee". Chances are there will be a rose with the perfect name.
Hardiness and disease resistance.
Pending of where you live, your climate and your soil quality, you may be more concerned primarily with finding the hardiest most disease resistant varieties of roses over the colour and fragrance. More and more so now breeders are focussing on breeding their roses with an emphasis on them being more adaptable and disease resistant than their earlier relatives.
If you've constantly struggled in the past with roses being susceptible to die back, fungal issues etc, this might be something to take into consideration when choosing your roses.
Bare root or potted.
Bare root or potted. Consider when the right time will be for you to buy your roses.
There are pros and cons for both.
Bare root season spans the cooler months when plants are dormant and will settle in nicely without stress as they're not actively growing. They're cheaper, and more compact taking up less room as you're not buying the pot and soil as well, advantageous particularly if you need a lot of them.
Potted roses on the other hand, are purchased throughout the warmer months when they are actively growing. The obvious advantage being that you can see the foliage and blooms, appreciate their appearance and fragrance, and more importantly see that they are a healthy growing viable plant with an established root system, and it goes without saying, for those reasons you will expect to pay more.
House keeping.
Any roses you plant whether they are little carpet roses or climbers and standards, will need a minimum of at least 6 hours full sun a day for them to thrive and bloom.
They are hungry feeders with the energy they put into producing their beautiful blooms, nothing comes for free, so be prepared to regularly feed them a good quality organic rose food such as Neutrog Sudden Impact for roses.
Regular good deep soakings a couple of times per week over the warmer months will aid them establishing a strong deep healthy root system.
Be vigilant for pests and diseases and treat them promptly before they take hold.
*Hint
Hybrid T -Singular large bloom per stem.
Floribunda -Masses of smaller blooms than a hybrid T per stem.
Decide what is of a priority to you. Is it colour, is it size for a particular location, or is it that you want your front yard to be filled with that breathtaking classic fragrance.
once you've worked out your priorities, go to your local library of jump online and start browsing from the thousands of roses there are to choose from and start looking for your perfect rose.
Knight Roses are proudly South Australia's largest wholesale supplier of roses since the 1950s.
Growing 700 different varieties, the produce over 350,000 roses a year.
They have a wonderful website that might be another good place to start for you and there's always a friendly voice on the other end of the phone if you need to know more.
A dozen classic old favourites to get you started😁
White Iceberg- Bush or STDS one of the best!!! Guaranteed.
Just Joey- Large Apricot bloom, hybrid T, fragrant.
Peace- Soft yellow, pink rimmed bloom, fragrant, hybrid T.
Double Delight- Two toned cream and cool red, hybrid T. highly fragrant.
Gold Bunny- Large full golden blooms, hybrid T, faint fragrance.
Freesia- Lemon yellow, highly fragrant, floribunda.
Blue Moon-Large lavender/Lilac hybrid T bloom, highly fragrant.
Heaven scent- Large classic soft creamy pink, highly fragrant hybrid T bloom.
La Sevillana-Classic warm red, prolific flowering floribunda. Ideal for
landscaping (locals see between Coonawarra and Penola SA beside the Vineyards).
Pierre de Ronsard- Classic, well-known designer climbing rose. Feminine, soft pink, tightly packed full fragrant blooms. A favourite.
Bonica-Smaller shrub variety, soft pink, floribunda. Masses of blooms, disease resistant.
Apricot Nectar-Soft Apricot fragrant floribunda. Popular well known.
Choosing roses can be exciting and rewarding, it's just knowing where to start.
Hopefully I've broken it down a little for you and taken away some of the guess work.
Always up for a chat if you want to know more.
As always, have a wonderful week and enjoy your gardens! 😘🌹
Comments