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clara_dylewski

Roses for shade and pots Zone 6a

last year

Hello! I am new to gardening and see that users of this website are very knowledgable about roses, i was hoping you can give me some advice.

I live in a northwest subrub of Chicago, zone 6a.

I have ordered 21 roses to plant this spring, mostly from David Austin, but some from Jackson&Perkins, and one from Heirloom roses. My house is a corner house facing south and east. Most areas are in the sun, but I am worried that once the trees start getting their leaves they're going to create some shade in the area. I have 2 big landscape islands that get full sun, so I would like to plant roses there that %100 require it to thrive. I have attached photos of my house what we took during some construction, they may help.





finally, my questions:

1. Which roses would do best in part shade?

2. Which roses would do best potted?

3. What pot size do you recommend? (DA sugests at least 17x17inches, so thats what I've been aming for)


The bareroot roses i have coming:

1. Zephrine Drouhin Climbing (j&p)

2. pretty in pink eden climbing (j&p)

3. Oxford girl climbing (j&p)

4. like no other floribunda rose (j&p)

5. scepter’d isle (DA)

6. Olivia rose austin (DA)

7. Gettrude Jekyll (DA)

8. the alnwick rose (DA)

9. The generous gardener (DA)

10. james galway climbing (DA)

11. emily brontë (DA)

12. St. Swithun climbing (DA)

13. silas marner (DA)

14. the lark ascending (DA)

15. lady of shallot shrub rose (DA)

16. eustacia vye (DA)

17. Roald Dahl (DA)

18. claire austin climbing (DA)

19. koko loko (heriloom roses)


20. crown princess margareta climbing (DA)

21. lady of shallot climbing (DA)

(20 & 21 I am planting on a trellis/arch over my grandfathers tombstone- they're bound to get some shade due to the surrounding trees, so i am keeping my fingers crossed)





…lastly any other tips and tricks for beginner rose gardeners would be greatly appreciated! we have a bunch of knockout roses now, but a majority of them have blackspot and theyre not my favorite. Thank you!!

Comments (3)

  • last year

    The potted roses will have to be moved to shelter for the winter. Most people use an unheated, attached garage. The ideal space is somewhere that stays between about 40 and 35, though it doesn't have to be temperature controlled. Inside a heated house is too warm.

    Because of this, the upper limit on the size of the pot is how large a pot you can move. My bay tree lives in a 15" pot, not because it likes that size of pot, but because it is the largest I can lift.

    Clara D thanked mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
  • last year
    last modified: last year

    Clara, your home and the surrounding space are truly beautiful! From your list, I have Eustasia Vye and Olivia. They both thrive in pots and are tolerant of shade. I found a wealth of information on the David Austin page.

    They've listed 72 roses as shade-tolerant: https://www.davidaustinroses.com/collections/shop-all-roses?_=pf&pf_t_key_features=filter_feature%3A%20Shade%20Tolerant

    Here's a trick for potted roses that has worked wonders for me. I plant roses in plastic garden pots and then insert them into decorative containers. During winter, I simply remove the roses with their plastic pots and place them in my garden bed, covering them with soil. If you have enough space in your garage, you can easily move them there as well. It's a great way to protect them during colder months.

    Clara D thanked elenazone6
  • last year

    Lovely list of roses Clara! I like the Austins too and you picked some good ones that will look great against the neutral palette of your house and yard.

    For starters, most of the Austins really like sun or they're not going to bloom nearly as much in our colder zone, though a majority of them will survive fine. For instance, I had Queen of Sweden in full sun on the south side of my house and part shade on the east side of my house, and they were night and day. The one on the east side rarely put out a few blooms a year vs. the one on the south that was in and out of bloom all season. They also like a LOT of water to bloom well, so if you're getting any of the drought conditions we're getting you should plan on some supplemental watering strategies. Some folks do underground sprinklers, but I'm low tech and prefer the sprinklers you haul around with a hose (also easier to control). Elena says she's had better luck and I agree that Olivia can take some shade. If those are the conditions you have (including at least 1/3 of my planting areas), you work with the spaces as needed. If you have pots, there is the potential for adjusting where they are after you see how the sun works in your yard.

    I've grown nearly all the roses you list except Oxford Girl, Like No Other, Silas Marner and Eustacia Vye. Of those, the only ones I've had do OK in part sun are The Lark Ascending, Lady of Shalott, Olivia Rose Austin and to some extent The Alnwick Rose. Scepter'd Isle I had in full sun but it's robust enough it might do OK. Olivia is a robust and sturdy self standing rose and she gets a lot of people's votes as a favorite Austin. I find she's among the bigger of the roses you list, even more than some that are listed as "climbers". Gertrude Jekyl never cleared 6' for me and bloomed rarely if ever in part sun, so she wants full sun to have a chance. James Galway and St. Swithun climbed OK (maybe 6-8') but didn't bloom much at all in part sun, so they like more heat and sun too.

    There is no separate rose that is Lady of Shalott climbing, just the note from DA that under some circumstances she can be induced to get tall and lanky. By "some conditions" that means places like California or England. In our climate, she is notably short, staying no more than 4' tall. That's an asset and she's a wonderful rose, but don't expect her to climb in our zone at all. Probably the same goes for Claire Austin, and there's no climbing form per se for that one either. She is listed with the wildly disparate heights of 5' to 11 feet. In our zone, probably no more than 5-6', California/England, most Austins will get "octopus arms" that can climb to 11'.

    Crown Princess Margareta did get very long thin canes that I wound several times around an obelisk in my yard, so she was genuinely a climber. What she wasn't (for me) was a bloomer. At all. In the 13 years I had her (grafted from DA roses), I got exactly one bloom cycle in one year (2013 if you care to note). Others have had much better luck for bloom including in my region - just stating my results.

    Zephirine D and Pretty in Pink Eden are both legitimately classes climbers and they can get to a good size in this zone. ZD has a reputation for not liking heat much and being a once or twice (spring and fall) bloomer in hot climates. YMMV, but you might not give her the most prominent spot. I couldn't overwinter PiPE, but others have and like her in my region.

    For your grandfather's grave, the rose planting is a lovely thought and there are cemeteries in other regions where heritage roses are grown. A couple of thoughts to consider, if you haven't already checked on this. First, ask the site if they support permanent plantings. The cemeteries where my in-laws are buried is very adamant that only artificial or temporary plantings like pots are allowed. I notice in your photo that only pots are visible and nothing else has a permanent planting. You might double check before you get your hopes set on a rose trellis that can only be done permanently. If they won't allow permanent plantings, you might be able to do a pot, but someone is going to have to maintain it regularly including watering. Most cemeteries make policy decisions based on what is easiest to do as a blanket control for neatness and that's why they may discourage or even rip out permanent plantings. Just check!

    The cemetery is definitely part sun at best so that's where (if you have permission) you might put something like The Lark Ascending or Lady of Shalott in a pot on each side of the grave. Their colors would complement each other with soft color in the shade.

    The good news is that in your house situation I don't think even those big trees would shade out your roses all day if they're in that central spot with the fountain. On the north side of a house is always less sunny, but that bed is far enough from the house to not be particularly shaded by the house itself. I've found that even my hottest sun bed on the south side of my house gets some shade in the afternoon from a big oak tree about 10' to the west of that bed, and they frankly enjoy a respite from the 8-10 hours earlier of sun. You could try all of your roses in pots for the first year and see how the light patterns change in your yard for the first year before planting. Koko Loko is the one that stands out as needing the most sun of the ones you mention, at least in my yard.

    Hope this helps! As always YMMV, just sharing other zone 5 thoughts. Have fun!

    Cynthia

    Clara D thanked nippstress - zone 5 Nebraska