Need Advice!

16 years ago

I have decided to attempt roses, I've been pouring over all the rose forums, been digging around HelpMeFind, been agonizing over the online catalogs of Pickering/Palantine and the Austin roses. Trying to figure out original roots, grafted roots and the type of root grafted, etc. It is mind-boggling to absorb all this information. Let me stop here - the Austin roses are so gorgeous and that is what has hooked me into trying to grow roses in the first place but it sounds like success is largely a crap shoot with the weather and a lot of patience and persistence on the part of the gardener. I just don't have that kind of time. I've got three children, ages 5 and under and I've already got a pretty large yard/garden to tend to (both flower and veggie).

Because I am petrified of waste of $ and failure I decided to mix Austin's Christopher Marlowe with Oso Easy Honey Bun (Proven Winners) in my front bed which faces east. The PW rose is supposed to be maintenance free, so we'll see how that goes next spring. I have a north facing empty wall on the side of my house that gets 50/50 sun/shade in the spring and summer and I am going to attempt to grow Korde's Maigold there. Does this sound possible on a north facing wall? What kind of support in the form of trellising will it need? In front of whatever climbing plant I choose (if a rose is really not going to work there) are hydrangeas (Annabelles) and some hostas and hucheras.

Next, on the south side of my house I have a full sun area that I am going to do a rose shrub bed with one climber behind, thinking Bouquet Parfait, Crocus Rose and Teasing Georgia to climb behind. Do I need to put anything in front of these roses in case they lose all their leaves? I *think* I am open to spraying but I haven't read enough about it yet to have made a firm decision, so are these roses going to be naked sticks without spraying?

I have a west facing area near my children's play set that I believe I will put in Crown Princess Margherita because it is gorgeous and almost thornless. Thoughts on this?

I also have an east facing wall of 12x20 with no windows that I thought might be nice for Lady Banks but after reading how vigorous it is, I am sort of afraid to try it. It would be climbing my house. Is this a bad idea? I have vinyl siding, I'm assuming I would need some sort of support trellis, right?

Almost every rose I've read about on HelpMeFind claims disease resistance which I just can't believe since I have read extensively about frustrations with black spot and mildew on these forums. Why do all the roses claim that? I really wish the Knock Outs and Earth Kind roses looked more appealing to me in photos so I could just stick with those and be done with the decision making!

My brain hurts from all the decision making. Help, advice, suggestions are welcome!

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Comments (3)

foreoki12
16 years ago
I'm also in NoVa, and I have an Austin that has done fine without any spraying: Golden Celebration. In fact I haven't sprayed any of my roses and I haven't had any problems with BS or mildew, only Japanese beetles. Next year I'll probably start spraying just to keep the beetles away.

I love Austin roses too and would say that you will probably be fine with anything you take a shine to. In fact, I would probably choose a few larger-growing shrub roses on your east-facing wall, like Abraham Darby, if the idea of anchoring wires into your wall sounds like too much effort to trellis a large rambler.

As long as your northern exposure gets at least 6 hours of full sun the Kordes Maigold should do fine, though not as well as your roses in sunnier locations.

I personally like to use annuals to front my roses, since I'm still deciding what I want to pair them with permanently. Some suggestions from one of my rose books: woolly yarrow, lambs' ears, hens and chicks, sedum, pachysandra, Swan River and English daisies, fleabane, sweet woodruff, Cotoneaster, catmint, and blue-flowered rosemary. And stay away from ivy because it will cover up your roses.

Buy either Miracle-Gro or Ortho's guide to roses. They'll give you some good winter reading and include rose galleries with a lot of useful information, including American Rose Society ratings, which HelpMeFind lacks. ARS ratings are great to help decide which roses to buy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Complete Guide to Roses (Miracle Gro) [Paperback]
hartwood
16 years ago
I'm just south of both of you in Stafford County. It sounds like you need a field trip to come visit a wide variety of roses and see what they look like in person.

Lady Banks would eat your 12 x 20 wall, and come after you in your bed in the middle of the night. This rose, and others like it, are happy climbing a tree or on an informal structure where their vigorous nature can be appreciated. It's no fun growing a rose that you have to hack into submission throughout the year.

For your wall, close your eyes and imagine what you want to see there. Is it a rose on a wall, or is it a trellis with a rose on it? Here, I have just put in a bed with 3 noisettes that I intend to train to climb my brick wall. (Reve d'Or, Marechal Niel, and Alister Stella Gray) To do this, I will put eye-hooks and wire horizontally along the wall to attach the roses to as they grow. I want the roses to appear to be climbing the wall, and a trellis of any sort would be distracting on the side of our house.

I suggested a trellis to a lady who came here from Richmond the other week, because she wanted to grow roses on a privacy fence, and she wanted something funky and colorful along with the roses. She, clearly, saw a structure along with her roses in that picture in her head.

Take a deep breath and enjoy the process. No plant is maintenance free, I don't care what the PW people tell you. Roses need water, fertilizer, and the occasional appointment with pruning shears. In our area, most of them will look better in your garden, especially if they are focal points, if they are sprayed with a systemic fungicide twice a month to prevent blackspot. In my garden, that's what I do ... and I have 800 roses here. I find it's best to meet the roses in person to decide what you like, since there are so many choices. Grow Knockout if you WANT Knockout, not because that's what you think you SHOULD grow. When folks ask me about Knockout, I usually introduce them to roses like Marie Pavie or Angel's Camp Tea or La Marne ... I got a million of 'em.

Connie
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flaurabunda
16 years ago
Take Connie's advice.....you don't want to end up regretting purchases you made without actually seeing mature versions of the roses IN PERSON, and in your zone. What a vendor describes as the perfect rose in their literature can turn out to be a completely different beast in your garden. Imagine on-line dating, but with roses. :)

Regarding spraying to prevent Japanese beetles: it doesn't work. Nothing deters them without killing all of the good predatory insects that may already be in your garden. The sprays designed to kill JBs must come in contact with the JBs, and to do that you'd have to walk from bloom to bloom & spray each one. It's much safer to just pick them off & squish them.