Rose Garden!?

I'd really like to plant a Rose Garden, but what do I start with? I've heard a Rose bush, but can I ge tthose at Lowe's or Wal-mart? And, rose bushes come from somewhere, do they sprout form seeds or what?

Rose Garden!?
Hello Andrea C,





Choosing the Right Rose for your Garden





There are literally hundreds of types of roses that you can grow in your garden. With such a selection to choose from, it can be extremely difficult to choose the rose that’s right for you. To make this task a bit easier, I’ve added some crucial factors that you should consider, and some of the different types of roses to aid in your search.





# Color may seem like a trivial matter, but it is usually a factor to those that want to grow roses. Usually it is simply a matter of personal preference.


# The final growth height of a rose should be considered as it would be unattractive to grow roses that are higher than the area of the garden that it grows in. Some roses can grow to be as high as 20 feet.


# If you live in an area that is prone to cold winters, you would certainly want a rose that could survive during the off season.


# If certain fragrances invoke an allergic reaction, you would want to plant roses that have a softer fragrance than the others.


# You would certainly want to learn what the advantages and disadvantages would be if you were to choose certain roses over others.


# You will want to consider the size of your garden space, so that you can ensure proper exposure to the air and other elements as well.


# If you are hoping to make your roses into bouquets, you will want to know if they can be cut. Hybrid teas can. Some roses will fall apart at the petals if they are cut.


# You should also consider what other types of flowers or plants you intend on adding to the rose’s environment. You want to add plants and flowers that will not create a damaging environment to your rose’s ecosystem.
Reply:Lowes %26amp; Home Depot do carry roses, so does Wal-Mart. In fact the local Wal-Mart here has gotten several varieties in over the last week. All different kinds and sizes as well as prices. I shop at all 3 for mine. You can go to a nursery, but they charge much higher prices for the same basic stuff.





P.S. One of those garden gurus on a DIY show recommended putting a banana peel at the base of a rose bush, a few inches from the trunk and burried a couple inches down. I thought it was wierd, but tried it. It really seems to help mine bloom larger, longer and more. Just be sure to dead head them when the blooms are done for.
Reply:Roses grow in many forms. Some grow into bushes 2-3' tall, some grow into long, arching bushes 6' across or more, and some will climb like a vine if trained onto a trellis. If you're new to roses, I'd suggest doing a Google search for easy-care or low-maintenance rose varieties. Many of the most popular roses are plagued with disease problems that greatly increase the amount of upkeep, but there are hardy and disease resistant ones. Also, I suggest finding out your hardiness zone and only buying those varieties that are hardy where you live, or you'll set yourself up for a lot of disappointment. Yes, they do come from somewhere! Rose breeders take one plant and pollinate the flowers with pollen from another plant, sometimes a cultivated variety, sometimes a wild species, and any seeds resulting from this are a new variety. If it's a worthy variety (that's up to the breeder to judge), they then take cuttings from the new young plant after it has established and root the cuttings, creating many clones from which they can then take more cuttings/clones and then start selling the new variety. All individual plants of one variety are the same plant genetically. Many rose varieties are centuries old! Good luck!
Reply:Start by locating a sunny location in your yard to create your garden. Roses need a least 6 hours of sun to grow and flower well. Most need to be planted about 2 1/2-3 feet a part so you can figure out how many roses you can put in the space you have available.





Roses need not be segregated to a strict rose garden but can also be mixed into your shrub or perenial beds.





You can get roses bushes at any garden center include Lowes and Home Depot etc.





You will have to decide what kind of roses you want or should I say the purpose of the roses. For example if you want classic roses for cutting like the kind you get from a florist you will want to buy Hybrid tea ,or grandifliora roses - but be aware this type of rose needs specific pruning and spraying to keep is leaves from getting disease. For me they are too much work.





If the goal is lots of color in the garden, but don't want to spray - I would suggest disease resistant landscape roses. They don't typically have long stems for cutting and the flowers while plentiful typicaly have less petals so you do not get the classic rose look. This is what I would recommend, as they are plenty beautiful and can add lots of color to the garden.





Here is a list of the best disease resistant roses:





Oso Easy Peacy Cream - Double peach flowers


Oso Easy Paprika - An abundance of Bright orange flowers


Oso Easy Strawberry Crush - Double soft pink flowers


Flower Carpet Rose - Low ground covering roses


Knock Out rose - hot pinkish red flowers.


Pink Knock Out - single pink


Double Knock Out - Double red





There are other landscape roses with fair to decent disease resistance. These too will work but it helps if you can avoid getting water on the foliage when you water them. If you cannot avoid this because you have an irrigation system, water in the moring so there is time for the leaves to dry off.





All flowering plants start out from seed, but most all shrubs you buy including roses are clones make by either cuttings or grafting stems or buds of the selected varity on to a cutting or seedling. Plant breeders cross pollinate different plants, collect the seed, sow then out, and then select only the best plant to introduce and sell. Plants of this selection is then grown as a clone from cuttings or grafting so that it's the same everytime you buy it. Seedlings are too variage, just like children in a family every one is unique. Cuttings, etc. are predicatble every time.





You can learn more about how breeder come up with new plants at my blog the Plant Hunter at


http://plant-quest.blogspot.com/