I find growing roses, which plant/flower is my favorite, hands down, to be so much easier in 2026 than it was when I started growing roses when I got into them in earnest in about 1990. If you count my first rose bush that I planted in about 1969, a Pascali, I go back farther, but I caught the "bug," and caught it good, in about 1990. Believe it or not, it was with minis, which were the craze then.

The disease resistance of roses has increased exponentially since way back then. Lack of disease resistance, especially to the dreaded black spot, was the greatest obstacle to success. Now, in 2026, you can plant an entire rose garden with roses (chosen carefully), that have excellent black spot resistance, essentially needing no spraying. Spraying for disease and insects has become much less of a burden over past years.

If you are a young rose gardener, you have no idea how much more challenging growing roses was in the past.

Moses.