Cop Car wrote a piece on roses. I started to leave a long comment, but figured it would be something for me to post about instead.
I like roses - I like how they smell and how they look. My problem? I tend to neglect stuff after I have planted it. With all the dusting and feeding and pruning and basic pampering that roses need, I figured I could live without.
Okay, that isn't exactly true. I believe the first ornamentals I planted at this place was roses - rugosa roses. They are above the retaining wall behind the basement door. I planted them 15 years ago in May (I remember exaclty when I planted them because I was on pain killers for a surgery I- I still hurt but didn't care). The main attraction of rugosas are they are just one step away from wild - diseases don't really phase them, neither do bugs, nor do salt or clay, and they will grow in shade or sun. You can't kill these things. The only care they need is to be hacked to the ground every 2-4 years to help thin out the old growth (they grow back to 6 feet tall within months).
The next year I tried to plant a fancy rose. I don't remember what it was besides J&P. For this rose I lovingly dug out a huge hole and replaced the clay with soil (I just plopped the rugosas in the clay). I watered it faithfully. It lived thru the summer (barely) and came back the next spring; putting out two pathetic little canes. It never even lived long enough to flower that year.
At that point, I decided that roses weren't for me and I have studiously avoided them since.
Last spring, I broke down and got a Blue Moon rose. I was facinated by the color portrayed in the catalog. Naturally, the rose looks nothing like the catalog (mine came out a light pink), but it did bloom a couple of times. We'll see if it makes it thru this coming season.
Toward fall of last year, I found some easy roses that would grow in part shade Knock-Out roses. I also got a couple of Carpet Roses which are said to be easy and carefree (with a little fertilizer anyway). Then I lost my mind and got a couple of other roses. Only a couple of those actually made it into the gorund, the rest are in pots covered over with straw. If they can live thru that treatment, they might have a chance here. In my defence, all the roses had been heavily discounted (except the yellow carpet roses which I got thru the internet) for the end of season.
Now this plant ordering season I have been looking long and hard at some other roses; the climber Night Owl, a Simplicity rose Fragrant Lavender, and tree roses. I think I have cured myself of the tree rose thing - the guy at Agway said they needed massive winter protection. However, the Lavender and Night Owl I am still thinking about, but I really don't have anywhere to put them (I still have to figure out what I am doing with the ones still in pots).
Besides, I need to save for the trees and bushes that I need for the area that we took out last year, where the fruit trees used to be. That doesn't mean that I can't dream though!
There is something to be said for planting vegetation that actually grows!Your rugosas looked really healthy when we were there in 2004 (or was it 2005?) That is the sort of rose that my grandmothers had on their farms--at the corners of the fences around their vegetable gardens. Mom, in town, had hybrid teas, mostly.
How was the color on your Blue Moon? Your dad asked me to plant one, and I think that I did; but, it must not have lived. We do have three miniature roses that are on the purplish pink side of the color wheel. They, unfortunately, seem to attract every bug in the county. They bloom profusely, but how healthy can a plant remain when the bugs eat off the leaves?
Like you, I don't have the yen (or the remembery, in my case) to keep the roses dusted and fed. That is why HH gets to do that.
You have lots of room, but not much of what I would consider to be prime rose real estate; so, where you would put all of those roses is a mystery to me. Good luck!!!
Posted by: Cop Car | February 19, 2007 at 10:48 AM
My mother loves roses. We have a cottage garden look to the front walk area, and there used to be six roses that lined one side of the walk. Then blackspot hit, and I think we are down to one, maybe two roses. We've tried a lot of things. One of my horticulturally oriented friends said that cinnamon dusted over the roses and the ground below would kill off the blackspot, but I don't think that's working.
CC...I need to talk to HH about what he uses to dust the roses.
We planted a climbing rose last year at the arbor on the north end of the herb garden. I think it may be too shaded there. :-( I'll be watching to see if it comes back after the three weeks we've had of deep freeze this winter.
The rugosa at the bend in the drive just keeps reinventing itself. I'll get DH to help me cut it down. Do you cut it back at the end of a growing season, or as a new season is starting?
Posted by: Buffy | February 19, 2007 at 03:56 PM
Cop Car - I uploaded a picture of the rose to Garden & Yard 2006
Posted by: bogie | February 20, 2007 at 03:59 AM
Buffy - this area has problems with black spot and powdery mildew. My rugosas shrug such stuff off. The Carper roses and Knowck Off roses are supposed to do the same. The Blue Moon rose wasn't infected last year, so I got lucky there.
The rugosas I will cut down any time. I have done it in early spring and in the middle of summer. I believe I have also pruned them hard in late fall, but don't rightly remember.
Posted by: bogie | February 20, 2007 at 04:05 AM
Bogie--Thanks for the reminder. Your Blue Moon is about the same color as our miniature Lavender Laces.
Posted by: Cop Car | February 20, 2007 at 09:39 AM
I'll have to look into the Knock-Out roses and the Carpet roses, Bogie. The rugosa at the bend in the drive is pretty hardy. I think I'll cut it back next fall, if it looks healthy during the summer. Thanks for the advice!
Posted by: buffy | February 21, 2007 at 08:14 PM