ROSES. Love them or Dislike them!

Ah! yes. Roses. Loved by many and perhaps not so popular with others. According to the history books. Roses have been around for a very long time, perhaps even to the dawn of creation, sorry I wasn't there that day. When we look at the history of the rose we find it crops up often in, yes, history. Even here in England, we had the, 'War of the Roses' So the humble rose has become a symbolic and heraldic symbol. In the world of prose and verse, the rose is so often likened to the attributes of a beautiful woman. What has the rose got to offer? Yes many rose plants have thorns. Many roses have such fragrance. If I may. When I lost my beloved wife Valerie,I set about making my tiny garden into a garden of rememberance. I chose named roses that to me, the flower, the bloom said so much to me. The delicate colour, just like Val, delicate, not over made up. Then other indicators,texture etc. OK the names may have played a part, but how can I explain. Mum in a million. Easy going. Peace maker. My Valentine and so on.

Fair do's. The rose is not the best looker in the garden in winter or spring. Ouch! those damned thorns, and then suddenly those dried up thorny sticks come to life, and soon what was a stump now has fresh new branches and decorative foliage and out of the blue. Flower buds appear. Then the Beauty of the rose breaks forth. Visitors, onlookers all exclaim, how wonderful, what great fragrance, if only the rose could bloom for ever.

Please my dear GC friends. Open up and be honest regarding your like's or dislikes about the rose. I wish you all the very best.

 

This is just between you and me, right Mike?

Not a single rose here in my garden. The air is clean and, supposedly, this contributes to black spot in roses. I grew Zephirine Drouin either side of an arch a few years ago....lovely scent, lovely to look at for a couple of years but then developed rust resulting in an almost leafless planting from mid summer. Now I have scented honeysuckles in their place.....wonderful scent, semi evergreen to evergreen, easy and reliable. Much better.

I have grown different shrub roses and other climbers .....no longer!

Roses are usually thorny, need constant spraying, are downright ugly in winter and, more often than not, grown ubiquitously and badly. Most of them producing the odd flowers on ugly shaped bushes. Hardly tactile, in fact they are downright threatening

Recently I came across a garden of roses....grown well and quite attractive too but the stiffness and monotony of the scene did not change my opinion about roses.

Shrubs, grasses and perennials are my preferred choice offering greater colour, fragrance, movement and interest I think

I have friends who grow fantastic climbing and rambling roses.....however, the maintenance of them is not easy

So, roses not for me.......is this, like religion, a subject too thorny to be other than provocative about?

 

As some of the members on here are aware, I have in my garden a small rosarium that at present consists of around 60 bushes. Therefore, I think it could be said that I like them a lot.

When someone came into my garden a few weeks ago, and almost fainted when she saw them in full bloom for the first time, that was praise indeed.

Being a little bit too blunt, and meaning no disrespect in any way, I think that a person that does not like roses is somewhat mentally incapacitated.

@Mike Allen is that honest enough for you?

 

I love roses (the flowers) but the foliage is dull and uninspiring in the winter. Most of mine are old roses which only flower once (but it's worth it for the beauty and fragrance). They are not worth growing in a small garden. I have room for a few and I underplant with bulbs and low growing perennnials to take the eye away from their bare stems.

 

Morning Woo
I had you in mind when I wrote that (provocative) post so I feel I have escaped your sharpest talons
I feel you will have the vast majority of support here and prob rightly so....the Rose is so universally loved. And when grown well it is a lovely thing

 

Love them or dislike them, can't it be both, Mike? I love them for their scent and flower form, (it was the scent of a rose called 'Wendy Cussons' that first sparked my interest in horticulture) but dislike how time-consuming their maintenance is compared to so many other shrubs. I decided last year that I would stick with the 6 I have (Alec's Red, Fragrant Cloud, Special Anniversary, Warm Wishes, an orange HT whose name I don't know and Margaret Merril) and not acquire any more. Currently looking awful due to lack of feeding, mulching etc over the last couple of years but the plan is to simply deadhead and keep disease-free this year while I learn more about other shrubs and herbaceous perennials.

Nick

 

Although I have 3 in my small garden one of which is of sentimental value I think I have decided they are not for me after all. I both love them and hate them. They are so gorgeous when in bloom and the smell is divine but Im just not experienced enough to get the best from them and am probably too old to learn now and with limited space its just time to wave the white flag. Ive decided just yesterday actually that if a plant is giving me less pleasure and more pain then its time get something else. I envy people with the skill to grow them but that's not me. However @Sandy Ground "mentally incapacitated"? bit harsh but I cant deny it...yep thats me. :rasp:

 

I don't think roses can be match with regarding sheer beauty and scent maybe by one of my other favourites Wisteria, but they is a price to pay with high maintenance deadheading - feeding regularly - pruning - mulching - blackspot ( I don't bother spraying ) and you can't forget about the thorns but I wouldn't be without them.

I do have a criteria when buying roses they most repeat flower, I have one rose paul scarlet which flowers once bought for a quid years ago, I often think about replacing it with a repeat flowering variety but it puts on a show when it does flower.

I have 7 roses in total most are DA roses - 3 shrub - 2 climbers and two recent purchase 2 rambling roses.

One thing I don't like though are roses beds with just roses in, particular floribundas and hybrid teas, It look very old fashioned and bland. I've often tried to convince people to grow perennials with them to no avail.

 

I don't get that either and hate to see roses which aren't underplanted, even a bit of sweet alyssum highlights the colours of the roses to my eyes. The only context where it's necessary or appropriate is in a historic garden IMHO.

Nick

 

I agree with our friend Wiseowl @cindy, 3 roses really aren't that many and I bet you could learn to maintain them well before next Summer. At least keep your 'Compassion', it's a wonderful rose and produces an amazing display, I have seen a stunning one IRL and believe me, it's worth persevering with!

Nick

 

Your never to old to learn something new @cindy

 

@cindy , all I do is as has been said above. If you think of them as say a Fuchsia or Salvia..... you deadhead them ( that's even less of a job if you use them as cut flowers as well ) cut them back in Spring and feed them ( I just throw some growmore around the base of them twice a year ).
They don't get anymore attention than any of my other plants, probably a lot less than some.

As @Nikolaos said they look gorgeous when underplanted. Mine are with Alyssum Saxatile and Cerastium Tomentosum both evergreen and flowers from March through to July ) which mean the bed is full of colour all year round.

Burgundy Ice



Iceberg



Fragrant Cloud



Hot Chocolate
( impossible to capture the colour on this one, it really is a warm chocoltey colour )



I've forgotten the name of this one.



Marjorie Fair



Got another three but haven't got any piccies of them