Easy Care Roses

Known as the Queen of Flowers, the rose is among the most elegant yet versatile plants in the garden.  Everyone can grow these beautiful flowers with a little know-how.  By selecting the right types for your area and following these easy care tips, your rose garden will be the envy of the neighborhood.  In recent years, many low maintenance, disease resistant roses have been introduced.  Let's explore the beautiful offerings...

This very popular family of shrub roses was first introduced in 2000 and has been a top-seller ever since. They are the forerunners of truly disease free landscape roses. The first one Rosa 'Knock Out' is almost a non-stop bloomer! This powerhouse features clusters of semi-double deep cherry red blooms in cooler weather which become a deep rosy pink in warm weather. Beautiful orange-red hips in the fall are a big attraction for birds. This is one very attractive and prolific rose bush!

There are now several different 'Knock Out' roses available in different colors. They all exhibit the same great characteristics of the original: ease of care and disease resistance.

There's 'Double Knock Out' with double petalled cherry red blooms. 'Pink Knock Out' and 'Double Pink Knock Out' are both a pretty medium shade of pink. 'Rainbow Knock Out' is coral pink with yellow centers. 'Blushing Knock Out' is a light, soft pink with medium green foliage with bluish tones. And last but not least is 'Sunny Knock Out' in, you guessed it, a bright yellow tone that fades gradually to a buttery cream color.

These roses are all good for beginners and seasoned rosarians alike. They are very floriferous with good disease resistance. A great fuss-free rose family!

Go to our site: Easy Care Roses for more information on low maintenance roses

The 'Flower Carpet' series are very popular groundcover roses. They are low-growing compact shrubs. These pretty roses are great for mass plantings, on slopes and cascading over walls. Due to their hardiness and low maintenance characteristics, they are widely used by landscapers.

Winter protection is suggested for the first winter - they are hardy once they are established. The 'Flower Carpet' roses come in a variety of colors including red, pink, coral and white. They also work great in containers.

The 'Carefree' roses are some of the first easy care shrub roses I've tried. They are still going strong today - more than ten years later. I have 'Carefree Beauty' (rosy pink), 'Carefree Wonder' (medium pink), and 'Carefree Sunshine' (you guessed it - golden yellow) in my rose garden.

Modern shrub roses, are repeat-flowering, hardy, low maintenance shrubs. They are easy roses to prune and take care of. A good friend of mine with a self-described "brown thumb" and long track record of killing roses took my advice and planted "Carefree Beauty". Her shrub rose is doing beautifully after five years! She waters it when she remembers, and that's about it. It seems to thrive on its own with very little care - hence the name. A definite winner and good choice for novices.

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Explorer series roses are a good choice, especially for those of us in cold climates. Developed at Canada's Agricultural Research Stations, these hardy modern climbing roses are very winter hardy and disease resistant. They have a heavy bloom time in early summer followed by scattered blooms through the season. Best of all - they don't need much fuss or winter protection. They get my easy care seal of approval!

My favorite Explorer Series climbing roses:

1.) Rosa 'William Baffin' - This is one of the hardiest climbing roses you will ever find! It bears semi-double, deep pink flowers in abundance in late June, with recurrent bloom well into fall. This gorgeous climber is also exceptionally vigorous and disease resistant. I've grown this charmer for over 15 years now and it looks better each and every year. Grows 8 - 10 ft. tall.

2.) Rosa 'John Davis' - This climbing rose features clusters of loosely double blooms of medium pink with yellow stamens. A wonderful spicy fragrance and thornless canes are some of the outstanding characteristics of this strong climber. Very winter hardy. Grows 6 - 8 ft. tall.

3.) Rosa 'Quadra' - This Explorer Series rose is classified as a shrub rose or climbing rose since it is easily trained to climb due to its spreading habit. The large full blooms have curled inner petals that are shorter like an heirloom rose. The rich deep red blooms mature to lighter red. Quadra's cut flowers are wonderful with a good fragrance. Grows to about 6 ft.

While roses mainly need sun and water, here are a few more points to consider when planting your roses:

• Roses need 5 to 6 hours of direct sun each day to thrive. Morning sun is best, but light afternoon shade is tolerated and even beneficial in hot climates.
• Good air movement helps dew and rain dry quickly, which discourages disease. Plant your roses approx. 3 feet apart to ensure they get enough breathing room. Roses also don't like very windy areas, so if there's a prevailing wind in your garden, plant your roses near the shelter of a building, wall, fence or hedge.
• When you dig the hole to plant your rose, check the area's drainage by filling it with water before you drop in the plant. An area with good drainage will empty within several hours, and will ensure that its roots won't rot when watered.If necessary, you can easily improve drainage with tilling or raised beds. If the soil seems too sandy, or is thick like clay, add organic matter like compost, dehydrated cow manure or shredded bark.
• Don't plant near large trees or shrubs. The roots will compete for light, water and nutrients. Also try to avoid eaves or gutters - bushes may be damaged by falling water, snow or ice.
• Consider designing in groups of three of one variety. Most mail-order companies sell roses cheaper in groups of threes, but you'll also get more impact for the money.

These beauties are new to the landscape rose scene from Proven Winners. They are tested to be very resistant to black spot and powdery mildew – the most common rose diseases. They are also self-cleaning and ever-blooming.

So far they are winning rave reviews! I just purchased ‘Oso Easy Peachy Cream’ (photo at top of Hub). I love some of the other names too: ‘Cherry Pie’, ‘Honey Bun’, & ‘Strawberry Crush’ among them. Hardy and easy care shrub type roses - and they attract butterflies to your garden!