Great New Roses For 2008

In December we described the 2008 All America Rose Selections, 'Mardi Gras' and 'Dream Come True,' which were introduced on the Bayer Advanced Float in the 2008 Tournament of Roses. But the New Year offers so much more that just those. Here are more of this year's exciting new roses that caught our eye:

'April in Paris' is a shell-pink hybrid tea with petals edged in darker pink. The flowers are intensely fragrant and make superb cut flowers.

'Blossom Blanket' is a vigorous, low-growing ground cover rose with white, lightly fragrant flowers, centered with bright yellow stamens. Reaching about 3 feet high and 5 feet wide, it's an excellent landscape choice useful for covering slopes, banks or cascading over walls.

'Janet English Rose' was bred by David Austin and bears wonderfully fragrant, cupped flowers in shades of light and dark pink with copper and yellow tones.

'Pink Double Knock Out' and 'Sunny Knock Out' are pink and yellow additions to the popular Knock Out series of shrub roses. Both are as tough and free-blooming as the original.

'Watercolors' is a bushy shrub rose with mostly single flowers in ever-changing shades of yellow, pink and glowing red. A tough rose, with good disease resistance; perfect for the landscape.

'Wing Ding' is a brilliant scarlet-red polyantha that bears huge flower clusters over a very long season. Easy to grow, it makes an exceptional landscape plant.

To get your new roses off to the best possible start, plant in full sun and well-drained soil. To fertilize and protect from insects and disease, use Bayer Advanced™ All-In-One Rose & Flower Care Concentrate just as the plants begin to grow next spring. One application feeds and protects for up to six weeks.

Earliest of the Early Spring Blooming Shrubs

If drab winter months have you longing for spring, you might want to plant a few of these very early blooming deciduous shrubs. Each flowers on bare branches, which are great for cutting in bud stage and bringing inside to bloom. In mild-winter areas, this plant may already be flowering.

Flowering quince (Chaenomeles) bears mostly single pink to red blooms on bare branches but there are also varieties with white or orangish flowers. An upright shrub, flowering quince reaches up to 10 feet high and has thorny branches. There are also dwarf and thornless varieties. Plant in full sun. USDA zones 5 to 9.

Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) produces small pale yellow blooms marked with shades of brown to maroon. Although not spectacularly showy, they are intensely fragrant. Can reach 10 to 15 feet high and half as wide. Plant where you can enjoy the fragrance in full sun or partial shade. USDA zones 7 to 9.

Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) is a colorful shrub with small yellow flowers followed by bright red berries and yellow (sometimes red) fall color. It grows upright to 15 feet high and can be trained into a small tree. Plant in full sun or partial shade. USDA zones 5 to 8.

Forsythia (Forsythia) glows with bright yellow blooms on upright branches. Plants can reach up to 10 feet high but there are many dwarf hybrids. Plant in full sun. Most varieties can be grown in USDA zones 6 to 9 but many hardy hybrids can be grow much further north.

Witch hazel (Hamamelis x intermedia) bears unusual, frilly yellow to range-red blooms, which are usually nicely fragrant. Plants grow 12 to 15 feet high and have attractive yellow, orange or red fall foliage. Plant in full sun or partial shade. USDA zones 5 to 9.

Growing Grass in Shady Areas

If you're having trouble growing a healthy-looking lawn in shady areas, the first step toward a remedy is to make sure you are growing the right type of grass. Although all grasses grow best in full sun, St. Augustine and Zoysia grass are the most shade-tolerant, warm-season or Southern grasses. Fine fescue is the most shade-tolerant, cool-season or Northern grass. So the first step may be to replant shady areas.

The next best step is to increase the light that reaches the lawn. That usually means pruning trees so more light gets through their canopy. Mowing the lawn higher will also help, as will proper watering and fertilizing. Because of the decreased light and competition from tree roots, watering can be especially tricky. Water deeply and then allow time for the soil to partially dry before you irrigate again. Aerating will help water penetration. To control moss and algae, which also love the shade, use Bayer Advanced™ 2-in-1 Moss and Algae Killer Ready-To-Spray.

If your best efforts still result in a thin, unhealthy-looking lawn, consider replanting with shade-loving ground covers, such as ajuga, liriope, vinca, ivy, hosta or pachysandra.

Problems with Pansies

Pansies and their close relatives, violas, are one of the most reliable cool-season flowers. In mild-winter climates, they bloom in glorious colors from fall through spring and can be planted almost anytime in between in colder areas. They are the foundation of spring and fall annual flower gardens. As easy as they usually are, one malady does confound many gardeners and that's when, for some unexplained reason, the plants suddenly collapse and die.

This sudden collapse can be caused by a number of factors. Often, the plants have been set too deep in the ground, causing them to rot at the base of the stem. So make sure to plant slightly on the high side. Some pests, including earwigs, slugs and snails, can also feed at the base of the stem, causing plants to collapse. Use a flashlight to check for these pests at night. Control earwigs with Bayer Advanced™ PowerForce® Multi-Insect Killer Granules. Take care of snails and slugs with Bayer Advanced™ Dual Action Snail and Slug Killer Bait Granules.

If none of these actions saves your pansies and violas, you may have a soil-born disease infecting your plants. Unfortunately, if that's the case, you're better off planting something other than pansies. Choices include snapdragons, alyssum, primroses and other cool-season annuals. If you already have pansies in the ground, be careful not to overwater, and cultivate often to aerate the soil.