Some Helpful Tips for Planting Landscape Roses
As a garden expert, I talk to gardeners every week. Time and again, they tell me they aren't happy with the performance of their roses. Whether it's disease, insects or problems with pruning, gardeners are constantly struggling with their roses. But this year I simply tell gardeners to relax, growing beautiful roses has never been easier.
This season you can find lots of new disease-resistant landscape shrubs available at your local garden retailer that are easy to prune and create beautiful blooms, and with Bayer Advanced™ 2-in-1 Systemic Rose & Flower Care Granules, fertilizing your roses and controlling insect damage has never been easier. These carefree rose plants can light up your landscape as hedges and background, or they can be mixed with flowering perennials. There are even low-growing varieties that make colorful ground covers.
The following rose variety list are some of my favorite landscape roses this season. Most varieties can be found at your local nurseries and garden centers this month.
Knockout – This beautiful shrub won an "All-America Rose Selection" award for best new roses for 2000. Knockout produces clusters of cherry-red flowers throughout the summer and grows well everywhere, without a hint of disease. This plant grows about three feet high by three feet wide.
Baby Love – This is one of the few yellow roses with excellent resistance to blackspot. These sunny-yellow flowers have five petals and bloom all season long. The plants deep green foliage grows upright about four to five feet high.
Carefree Delight – Another "All America Rose Selection" winner in 1996, this shrub produces lovely pink flowers with five petals and a white center. After blooming, they make a clean drop from the plant so no deadheading is necessary. This hardy plant spreads well, grows four to five feet high and equally as wide. Sister varieties such as "Carefree Beauty" and "Carefree Wonder" also are excellent shrub roses.
First Light – These bright pink blooms have distinctive burgundy stamens in the center. The compact, carefree plant grows three feet high and about three feet wide, and works well in small spaces or as a low hedge.
Flower Carpet – This is actually a series of ground cover roses with white, pink or red flowers. Flower Carpet has excellent disease resistance, is a generous bloomer and grows about two feet high and three or four feet wide.
Livin' Easy – This shrubby floribunda was a 1996 "All America Rose Selection." Its showy apricot-orange flowers have a fruity fragrance and shine beautifully against its glossy, deep green, disease resistant foliage. Livin' Easy grows three to four feet high and about as wide.
Magic Carpet – This low-growing ground cover rose has pink blooms, shaded with lavender. Magic Carpet flowers have a spicy fragrance and bloom all season long. Although, Magic Carpet grows only 18 inches high, it spreads nicely, up to five feet.
Tips for Landscape Roses
Water and Sunlight – Landscape roses need at least six hours of sunlight a day and should be watered regularly during dry weather.
Feeding and Insect Control – To create and maintain healthy blooms, roses need to be fertilized every four to six weeks. Unfortunately, insects such as mites and thrips can trouble even well-maintained roses. You can feed your roses and protect them from insect damage at the same time with Bayer Advanced™ 2-in-1 Systemic Rose & Flower Care Granules. When used according to instructions, this Bayer Advanced™ product feeds your roses and protects them from insects for up to six weeks with just one application.
Pruning – Shearing-off withered blooms during the growing season, as necessary will promote the maximum amount of color. Get out the hedge shears and trim your landscape roses back by about half their size in the winter.
Products Mentioned In This Article
Bayer Advanced
