Roses Planting Ideas for Your Garden
Roses have always been an essential element in the garden, valued highly for the colour and scent of their flowers. Their hardiness varies widely depending on which part of the world they originated from. A few species are native to northern Europe; others came from an area stretching from southern France to the Middle East; while many roses introduced to cultivation in the late eighteenth and throughout the nineteenth century come from China.
In cold climates roses need to be chosen with care to ensure that they survive the winter; varieties bred from Rosa rugosa and R. wichuraiana are among those most tolerant of the extreme cold found in Canada, the northeastern United States and parts of continental Europe. Although roses require plenty of summer heat to ripen, their flowers tend to bleach and burn under intense sun.
Today, there are an enormous number of cultivars available to the gardener which often makes it difficult to know which to choose. However, broadly speaking there are three main groups – shrub, bush and climbing – each adapted to a different use.
Shrub roses include both the old-fashioned varieties bred mostly in the nineteenth century (such as ‘Madame Hardy’ and ‘Cecile Brunner’) and the modern shrub roses (for example, ‘Marguerite Hilling’, ‘Friihlingsgold’ and ‘Fritz Nobis’), including the new English roses (’Graham Thomas’, ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ and ‘Mary Rose’), bred by David Austin and first marketed in the early 1980s. Shrub roses make large plants to 6ft (1.8m) high or a little more, which require little or no pruning and need space to look their best. Some give a single massive display early in the summer and nothing else for the rest of the season; others flower again later on, if less profusely; yet another group make a good display of hips in the autumn. All look good in a shrubbery or large mixed border, where the cultivars that flower only once can be part of a continuous display or a large-flowered hybrid clematis can be trained through them to extend the season of interest. In addition, some shrub roses are suitable for making hedges.
Most bush roses were created in the twentieth century. They are often planted en masse in rose gardens and require annual pruning in the late winter or early spring. They include the wonderful Hybrid Teas which are characterized by elegant but robust flowers and flower freely and continuously throughout the summer; (for example, ‘Peace’, ‘Mister Lincoln’ and ‘Just Joey’); the Floribundas, which have multiflowered stems producing an abundance of colour for the whole summer (and are sometimes referred to as bedding roses); and the Grandifloras (such as ‘Queen Elizabeth’), American hybrids with characteristics between Hybrid Teas and Floribundas. Grandifloras, as their name suggests, are taller (up to 10ft/3m) and have larger flowers than the Teas (3-5ft/l-1.5m) or Floribundas (2-4ft/60cm-1.2m).
Climbing roses combine the best qualities of other climbing plants with those of roses. In the wild they extend long vigorous stems towards the light through the branches of other plants, using their thorns to attach themselves. The most vigorous climbing roses are the ramblers (for example, ‘Felicite et Perpetue’, ‘American Pillar’ and ‘Alberic Barbier’) which send out long new shoots each summer. In the following year these shoots are covered with clusters of flowers along their entire length and should then be pruned away. Ramblers are best for clothing a large pergola, long wall or tall, sturdy tree. Less vigorous climbers (such as ‘Climbing Etoile de Hollande’, ‘Maigold’ and ‘Handel’) grow thick stems which flower over several years and sometimes reach a considerable height. They can be used for covering pergolas, trellis structures and smaller buildings. There are also some shrub roses (including ‘Madame Isaac Pereire’ and ‘Zephirine Drouhin’) that can be trained against walls, where they will grow twice as high as normal, or up a freestanding pillar or the uprights of a pergola.
There are a number of slightly tender cultivars (’La Follette’, ‘Desprez a Fleur Jaune’ and ‘Hume’s Blush’ among them) that in cool climates benefit from the protection of a sunny wall. In contrast, other cultivars flower abundantly against walls that receive little direct sunshine (’Albertine’, ‘Climbing Iceberg’ and ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’ are excellent examples).
Roses are very versatile, rewarding plants. Their popularity never fails, reflected in the ever growing number of varieties available to the gardener. Choosing the correct plant for a particular site and design can be a daunting prospect. There is a lot to be said for opting for tried and tested varieties that have proved their worth in neighbours’ gardens. However, at the risk of disappointment, you could gamble on a new plant that might be the making of your garden, adding a beautiful note or a delightful fragrance to a bed.
There are countless ways to use roses, not least being the formal rose garden which has enjoyed something of a revivial in recent years, used as much in modern designs as traditional Victorian-style settings. Ranks of healthy, well maintained roses are a delight to behold, whatever the scale of the planting. Contrast with this the freedom of a cottage garden, and the versatility of the rose becomes clear.
