Carefree Wonder.(love this one, blooms non stop, pink with a white reverse petal)
Our Lady of Guadeloupe,
Bonica
Posted on 03/18/2007 8:05:23 PM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum
Spring fever has got me. I want to get out of the house, away from the computer, and dig in the dirt. Getting ready to start a new rose bed. Anybody else out there nuts about roses?
That was interesting!
And then there's nuts like me who want to recreate historically correct gardens (my backyard project for the future) and we look for varieties that have been grown or are similar to ones that have been grown for hundreds of years.
I was so intimidated by growing roses. But it is not as hard as we think. They are hardier than we think too. Start with one and before you know it, you will have more. ;) If I can do it, anyone can LOL It is possible. :)
Thanks! :)
This house had one raised bed that I had to tear down and rebuild, and one sick tree that still looks like a sapling, though it's 9 years old. Just about a blank slate.
I found out my soil is quite alkaline, so I am in the process of amending it. In mid April, I will be planting five roses (they're reserved and sitting in the greenhouse to root better), all floribundas. It's in front of a bay window, so I had to select carefully.
It's been great fun.
If you can keep the weeds down, they are not nearly as tricky as some people think...now having them be in award winner quality is a different issue...but roses are much easier to grow than a lot of flowers, and if they get enough sunlight, they can last long years with no care even....
I'm not a rose grower, too intimidated,......YOU can do it!! There is great advice on here and its not all that hard...If I can so you...Good Luck!
Gorgeous! :-)
Aren't they. They are so easy to grow too. :)
Hey, girlies... enjoying the conversation here. I went out for walkies at lunchtime, found a nice residential street adjacent to the hospital to walk in the Spring sunshine.
Someone's rose bushes are showing 1-2 blooms each already. I had to stop for a breathtaking deep peachy, pink orange HT... huge bloom, old bush.
These are much loved, long cared for rose bushes with a bright southern exposure. L.A. is quite the rose show in springtime.
Guess I'd better "spring" for some film for my camera, not having gone digital like the rest of the world...:)
Pinzie, you can do it!!! Now is the time: start with just 3.
"Bride's Dream" is sublime, Gracie...;^)
I sort of lean towards Glamis Castle, myself...I like the old style roses best I think.
That way we could admire each other's garden....;^)
Hi Dita :)
Sounds like a wonderful walk! :) I fumbled around trying to bird houses up today. Will try again tomorrow ;).
I can't wait to see blooming roses! :)
Digital cameras are so handy! I'm going to take pictures of my garden coming to life! I already have the one pic of what the garden wall looked like after I rebuild it. When I get the roses planted, I will take more pics and watch them grow this year!
I'm going to Costco tomorrow. Who knows, I may become tempted in the electronics department...*grin*
Maybe an early birthday present to myself (thinking, thinking...:)
Roses have a long and colorful history. They have been symbols of love, beauty, war, and politics. The rose is, according to fossil evidence, 35 million years old. In nature, the genus Rosa has some 150 species spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from Alaska to Mexico and including northern Africa. Garden cultivation of roses began some 5,000 years ago, probably in China. During the Roman period, roses were grown extensively in the Middle East. They were used as confetti at celebrations, for medicinal purposes, and as a source of perfume. Roman nobility established large public rose gardens in the south of Rome. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the popularity of roses seemed to rise and fall depending on gardening trends of the time.
White Rose of York
During the fifteenth century, the rose was used as a symbol for the factions fighting to control England. The white rose symbolized York, and the red rose symbolized Lancaster, as a result, the conflict became known as the "War of the Roses."
Roses were in such high demand during the seventeenth century that royalty considered roses or rose water as legal tender, and they were often used as barter and for payments. Napoleon's wife Josephine established an extensive collection of roses at Chateau de Malmaison, an estate seven miles west of Paris in the 1800s. This garden became the setting for Pierre Joseph Redoute's work as a botanical illustrator. In 1824, he completed his watercolor collection "Les Rose," which is still considered one of the finest records of botanical illustration.
It wasn't until the late eighteenth century that cultivated roses were introduced into Europe from China. Most modern-day roses can be traced back to this ancestry. These introductions were repeat bloomers, making them unusual and of great interest to hybridizers, setting the stage for breeding work with native roses to select for hardiness and a long bloom season. Many of these early efforts by plant breeders are of great interest to today's gardeners.
Carefree delight shrub rose hedge
Roses are once again enjoying a resurgence in popularity, specifically, shrub roses and old garden roses. Gardeners realize that these roses fit the lifestyle of today's gardeners who want roses that are not as demanding with regard to disease control, offer excellent floral quality, have excellent winter hardiness, and fit into shrub borders and perennial gardens without seeming out of place.
To be successful in growing roses in Midwest gardens, one needs to be aware of some basic considerations. Attention to plant selection, a basic knowledge of the wide array of classes available, basic culture information, and information about potential disease and insect problems will go a long way in making roses an enjoyable addition to the garden.
This short guide to rose gardening will hopefully help sort through some of the confusion about roses and entice you to include one or more of these plants in your garden.
(this is from Illinois. The site has much about rose gardening on it:)
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/roses/history.html
I'm going to be out a good bit today, but chat away!
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