By Any Other Name

Roses are divided into 150 or so species, some of which have been garden plants for many centuries. Stems are often prickly or thorny and can be erect, arching, scrambling, or trailing. Flower form may be flat, cupped, rounded, high-centered, urn-shaped, rosette-shaped, quartered-rosette, or pompon. Flowers are often fragrant and range in color from white to nearly black. Species and cultivars are divided into old garden roses (in existence before 1867) and modern roses. Each division has many subgroups. There are many thousands of cultivars. Grow roses as specimens, in the border, as hedges or climbers, in the rock garden or cutting garden, or in containers. They can fill pretty much any garden need.
Noteworthy characteristics: Some species have been used in gardens for hundreds of years. Beautiful, fragrant flowers that are often good for cutting. Work well in a variety of garden situations.

Care: Even though many consider roses to be high maintenance plants, in reality they can tolerate a wide range of conditions. They usually prefer an open site in full sun, however. They grow best in moderately fertile, moist but well-drained soil that is rich in humus. Plant in early spring or late fall. Suckers should be removed from rootstock. Plants flower best with regular feeding.

Propagation: Softwood cuttings can be taken from the time of the first bloom in spring to summer; take hardwood cuttings in fall. Bud in summer. Sow seed in containers in fall.

Problems: Roses are susceptible to a wide variety of pests and diseases including aphids, leafhoppers, spider mites, scale insects, caterpillars, sawfly larvae, Japanese beetles, rose stem girdlers, thrips, rose chafers, rose midges, rose slugs, leaf cutting bees, black spot, rust, powdery mildew, dieback, canker, crown gall, viruses, and downy mildew. Deer and rabbits can munch on plants.

From the Website of Fine Gardening.
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Our favorite garden flower is the rose, even with all of the problems one can encounter. It has taken some special effort to keep from completely tanking while trying to grow roses here in Annapolis. As mentioned before, the Japanese Beetles were the first unexpected surprise we experienced (see the earlier post), but those were easy to remedy with a phermone trap the second year. Black spot disease caused by Diplocarpon rosae took better than two seasons of adjustments, and a lot of fungicide sprayed early in the season in two week intervals and through out the summer - a lot of extra watering beyond what our drip irrigation system applies helps, too. The low maintenance version of the rose that we discovered after two yers was the Knockout Roses.

Regardless of all the problems listed above, we liked the looks of the roses in our Oregon garden - deer withstanding, and the looks of our roses in our Annapolis garden - despite several years of failures. We would like them in any garden - I'm sure. Of course, we also have no problem with roses gracing our table in doors as well.

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose
Loveliness extreme.
Extra gaiters,
Loveliness extreme.
Sweetest ice-cream.
Pages ages page ages page ages.

Gertrude Stein, 1913, from "Sacred Emily", published in 1922, in Geography and Plays.
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a. The Cecile Brunner rose in our garden was grown from a cutting we made of a specimen in Bob and Lois's yard, our next door neighbors in Corvallis. The plant climbed high into a white oak tree and would bloom every spring, sending the smell of roses through out the neighborhood from the tens of thousands of blooms. We have the memory preserved on an arbor over on of the gates into our back yard (b).

Two climbing roses - red and salmon (c and d) - cover another arbor (f) over the second gate into our back yard. I have no idea of what varieties these are - one of the previous owners had planted them.

e. Rose are a gift that can keep on giving. Our friend Vicki grew a plant from a bouquet of roses picked in our Corvallis garden. When we moved East, she gave us a cutting back from the plant that was now flourishing in her garden.

g. Knockout roses are simple to grow, and seem to be resistant to black spot disease, as well as Japanese Beetles. We have them growing in a bed near our front door (h), as well as in another bed in the back yard.