Not Your Mother's Roses

by Lindsay Bond Totten
Scripps Howard News Service

I used to counsel gardeners against planting roses. At a time when the term "rose" was synonymous with "hybrid tea," I felt it was my horticultural duty.

Pruning, feeding and winter protection landed roses automatically in the "high maintenance" category--not in itself a punishable offense, but the pesticide sprays needed to keep these demanding plants healthy made their cultivation nearly untenable.

Not anymore. A tough new generation of roses is much easier to please. Sturdy canes and disease-resistant foliage entitle them to a place in almost every sunny garden. So while hybrid teas are still around (and still flora-non-grata, in my opinion) most gardeners can enjoy roses today without much fuss.

Of course, after years of feuding with the rose family, there will be fences to mend. And when those repairs are complete, I'd recommend planting a 'Climbing Sally Holmes' to adorn it.

She's a charming rose--short for a climber, with blossoms the delicate shade of pink champagne.

'Climbing Sally Holmes' displays the special features I look for in a low maintenance rose: thick, glossy leaves that shrug off fungus spores, and strong repeat bloom so that the color lasts.

If pale pink is not your taste in roses try 'Polka' (light peach), 'William Baffin' (deep pink), or 'Fourth of July' (red-and-white striped) on a fence or arbor. All are low maintenance climbers--that means no wrapping of the canes to protect tender flower buds from winter's blasts.

Climbers are wonderful, but all require upright support of some kind. More versatile are the low maintenance shrub roses, for these can be planted practically anywhere there's enough space and sun for them to bloom, even in a container on a deck!

Most modern shrub roses are classified as floribundas--meaning "many flowers"--by the American Rose Society. Plants tend to be fairly short and rather stocky, occasionally slightly cascading (as with 'Red Meidiland'), and bushier than hybrid teas.

Individual blooms are generally smaller on shrub roses than those on hybrid teas or grandifloras, but they're more abundant. It's not unusual for the first magnificent flush of blooms to nearly conceal the foliage.

Wrestling with this changing image, nurserymen have nicknamed the new low maintenance varieties "landscape roses." While the term can be a bit confusing--plants come in many shapes and sizes--"landscape roses" conveys the right message: They're easy to grow.

Plants in the 'Carefree' series ('Carefree Beauty', 'Carefree Wonder', and 'Carefree Delight') are a pretty sure bet for gardeners who want to try roses again, or perhaps for the first time. All three are pink, with minor variations in the sizes and shapes of the bushes.

'Nearly Wild' is a stripped-down version of the 'Carefree' trio. Individual bushes are rather plain, the single pink blossoms unremarkable, but a mass or drift of 'Nearly Wild' is absolutely stunning. It's how this low maintenance rose was meant to be used.

Other gardeners may disagree (because that's what gardeners do), but I think 'Meidiland Red', mentioned previously, is the best of the Meidiland series. Take your pick--white, pink, pearl, scarlet; none out-performs 'Meidiland Red,' in my experience.

Bushes are undisputedly raucous, with screaming single red flowers that erupt on cascading canes. A decorative hedge of 'Meidiland Red' in full bloom can stop traffic.

For extreme hardiness, plumb the depths of the Canadian 'Explorer' series and worry no more about protecting your roses in winter. Two of the most reliable are 'Champlain', a small shrub with crimson blooms, and 'Jens Munk', a vigorous--and thorny--fellow with vibrant fuchsia blossoms.

'Heritage' stands out among the extensive (and highly variable) David Austin series of landscape roses. Individual blooms are as close as any shrub rose to those of a hybrid tea, but the plant's habit and foliage are pure joy.

Fully double pale pink blossoms whisper instead of shout, even when 'Heritage' is in full bloom in June. It begs to be paired with equally delicate companions, such as the soft blue of catmint or the gentle white of peach-leaved bellflower.

I've not been as successful with 'Graham Thomas', another highly rated David Austin rose, but many gardeners love it, so I'll let you be the judge. Blooms are a warm butterscotch color, mmmm....

And finally, it's hard to go wrong with time-tested 'Simplicity' shrub roses. In pink or white, they'll entice even the most reticent gardener to catch the landscape rose wave.

(Lindsay Bond Totten, a horticulturist, writes about gardening for Scripps Howard News Service.)