A Rose Romance
Ah, June! Roses are at their height and bees are buzzing. I confess a romance with roses, especially the heirlooms. However, in my garden where it’s survival of the fittest, only the tough make the cut.
I have eight varieties of roses staking out the sunny spots and pushing the boundaries of shade. If I had more sun, we’d be loaded with them. However, the test lab that is my yard is finite and the trees come first.
Being in zone 5b and having little patience for plants that need coddling, means my roses are all shrubs and one climber. They don’t get sprayed and they don’t get fertilized. And guess what? They do just fine and bloom happily. About half of them are fenced in winter because of the rabbits. They are also all on their own roots. Why is that important? Because when we get another polar vortex or four and they die to the ground, the same variety bounces back from the roots.
My varieties: Sea Foam, Stanwell Perpetual, Munstead Wood, The Alnwick (I’m pretty sure. I lost the tag.), Hope for Humanity, Wild Spice, New Dawn, and Sweet Fragrance.
Sea Foam being arching and foamy.
I have a weakness for pale pink roses that smell spicy and delicious. They all have their quirks. The Sea Foam is an older landscape rose that shoots out eight foot canes every year and has claimed the corner of the retaining wall. It takes no prisoners and has tolerated a surprising amount of shade. The redbud above it got a major prune, so it’s loving life right now. I don’t bother fencing it and tend to whack it back to about a foot each spring. It seems to enjoy this treatment and roars back to be covered in small nearly white flowers that become cherry red hips.
Let me escort you to the backyard…
The Munstead Wood is a David Austin English shrub rose with deep red almost burgundy flowers. It is also putting up with probably too much shade and this year decided to arch over and follow the path in a cascade of sheer loveliness.
Swooning at the fragrance of this Alnwick.
The Alnwick is also a David Austin and is ridiculously healthy and vigorous. The love bounced right back from the 2019-20 winter and shot up. It’s as high as my nose, which makes for easy enjoyment of its old garden rose fragrance.
Bees are very busy in the Wild Spice.
New this year is a Wild Spice rugosa. So far it is the bee’s favorite for easy access to plentiful nectar. It has set a bumper crop of hips but is still sending out pure white fragrant flowers. We’ll see if it gets a touch of orange fall color, but the pumpkin-shaped huge hips will be treat enough.
If you have six or more hours of sun, I urge you to try roses. They are tougher than they look and easier than you think. A Knock Out is a great starter rose, but once you’re comfortable, there’s a whole world of enchanting roses out there waiting for you.