Roses don’t have to be grown in rose beds. They can be grown anywhere in the garden where they’ll get at least five hours of full sunshine a day, and they can be used for just about any kind of garden effect you may think of.
That’s what makes roses such incomparably wonderful garden plants.
So if you’re planning a new garden and like roses, here is a suggestion. First, decide where various perennials, shrubs, vines, and so on should be planted.
Then ask yourself what kinds of roses can be used everywhere. The following paragraphs may help you answer your question.
Mixed Borders
One of the most effective uses of roses is as focal points in a mixed perennial border.
The floribunda roses are especially well fitted for this purpose and may be used singly, spotted here and there, or, if the border is large enough, in groups of three or five.
Vigorous growing varieties like Betty Prior (pink) are suitable for the background, and any of the medium-height and low-growing varieties are fine for the center and foreground.
Foundation Plantings
Current trends in the design of homes have made foundation plantings, in the old formal sense, obsolete.
Today, low to medium heights in formal plantings are used to soften the transition from ground to building and enhance the overall picture’s attractiveness.
Roses are ideal plants for this purpose — particularly the floribundas and the new grandifloras, such as Queen Elizabeth (pink) and Carrousel (red).
Tall varieties may be planted in bays of Japanese hollies or yews for a rich effect or among deciduous shrubs for a lighter feeling. Masquerade (multicolored), Baby Blaze (red), and The Fairy (pink) are fine for such situations.
Shrub Borders
A rose shrub border or screen planting may be brightened and made distinctive by many kinds of roses.
The wild species, like the yellow Father Hugo’s rose (Rosa hugonis), the sweetbrier (R. eglanteria) with fragrant foliage and pink blooms, and some of the color forms of the Scotch rose such as the deep yellow R. spinosissima lutea, are often used in this way.
These roses, like most shrubs, bloom only once a year, but R. rugosa and its hybrids continue over a longer period, and a new yellow single rose, Golden Wings, is seldom without bloom from June until late fall.
Large-flowered sorts suitable for shrub borders include:
- Hon. Lady Lindsay (buff-pink)
- Autumn Bouquet (pink)
- The hybrid perpetuals Georg Arends (pink)
- Henry Nevard (red)
- Paul Neyron (lilac rose)
The single-flowered pink variety Nearly Wild is low-growing and compact and never out of bloom from June until frost.
Hedges
There are scores of roses suitable for use as hedges. On the low side are those mentioned above:
- Nearly Wild
- King Boreas (yellow)
- Jiminy Cricket (orange-red)
- The Fairy (pink)
For higher barriers, these are the rugosa varieties:
- Agnes (yellow)
- Sarah van Fleet (pink)
- Sir Thomas Lipton (white)
- Also, the grandifloras Carousel (red)
- Buccaneer (yellow)
- And even the hybrid tea Peace (yellow-pink blend)
For an impenetrable hedge but less rampant than R. multiflora, these are R. virginiana and R. rubrifolia, both with bright fruits that persist for long periods.
Rock Gardens
For rock gardens or small plants, charming miniature roses grow only 8” to 12” inches tall with tiny leaves and perfectly formed flowers ½” to 1 ¼” inch across.
Varieties include:
- Bo-Peep (pink)
- Midget (red)
- Oakington Ruby (pink)
- Pixie (white)
- Pompon de Pax-is (pink)
- Red Imp
- Rosa rouletti (pink)
- Sweet Fairy (pink)
- Tom Thumb (red)
Groundcovers
Some roses are particularly useful as groundcovers. Though susceptible to mildew, the old pink rambler Dorothy Perkins has long been used for this purpose, and Max Graf (pink) and R. wichuraiana (white) have become standard ground cover varieties.
New and improved additions to this class are Little Compton Creeper (pink), Carpet of Gold (yellow), and Coral Creeper.
Fences, Arbors, Walls
Climbing roses are the best plants for use on fences, arbors, and walls, provided the location of such structures does not cause people to brush against the roses and their thorns.
Among the most popular varieties are:
- Paul’s Scarlet
- New Dawn (pink)
- Climbing Goldilocks (yellow)
- The City of York (white)
- Climbing Mrs. Sam McGredy (orange-red blend)
Question: I read that a rose with seven-leaf foliage has become wild and worthless. Is this true with climbers?
Answer: Most climbing roses are of either multiflora or Wichuraiana parentage. Both have from five to seven leaflets and occasionally nine. Likewise the climbing roses may have from five to seven leaflets and still be true to name.
If a cane comes from just below the soil surface, with foliage size, color, thorns, and habit of growth different from the rest of the bush it should be removed. It is a sucker coming from the understock. They are usually easy to recognize.
Rose Beds
Although we said at the outset that roses do not have to be planted in beds, it’s still true that they can be planted in beds—and most advantageously too!
Here’s where the hybrid teas shine, and the number of varieties, colors, forms, and heights are next to limitless.
How to Plant
Nothing is more important in the culture of roses than the planting, and you’ll never get the most out of them if you don’t give them a good start.
Their location, as stated, should provide at least five hours of full sunshine a day, good drainage, and should not be near shallow-rooted trees.
Hybrid teas and floribundas should be spaced 18” to 24” inches apart, extra vigorous varieties 30” inches, and shrub roses and climbers from 4’ to 10’ feet apart.
Soil
Dig the holes 18” inches deep and 18” inches across with straight sides. Save the topsoil and diseased subsoil. (If your soil is very poor, discard it all and get good soil from your nurseryman or florist.)
Into the bottom of the hole, put a pail of well, rotted manure, compost or peat moss, a pail of topsoil, and 1 ½ cups of superphosphate. Chop and mix these thoroughly.
Now mix equal quantities of topsoil and compost for peat moss) and with this mixture, make a cone-shaped mound in the hole high enough so that when the roots are spread over the mound, the bud union (knob between the root and the main branches) is at soil level or 1 inch below.
Hold the plant with one hand and work prepared soil around the roots with the other until the hole is nearly full.
Firm the soil and pour in a pail of water or starter solution prepared with soluble fertilizer. When this has soaked away, add soil until you have built up a mound around the plant 8 or 10 inches high.
In a month or so, begin leveling the mound, continuing it over a couple of weeks, and when it’s completely level, scatter a scant handful of complete fertilizer around each plant and water or scratch it in. Your roses are now off to a good start.
44659 by Fred J. Nisbet