Climbing Rouletii ... Blooming Its Brains Out

Despite the weeds and my current lack of a decent camera lens for close-up work, I ventured out to try to capture the beautiful spectacle that is Climbing Rouletii in full bloom.  (I ordered my new lens online yesterday morning, and I was notified yesterday evening that it has shipped ... so I won't be lens-less for a whole lot longer.)

I bought this rose four years ago, as a small rooted cutting.  I grow it on one of the arches in the Rose Field, and it is one of the largest and most vigorous roses in my whole garden. 

Climbing Rouletii is almost always the first rose to bloom here.  It starts with a few tiny pink flowers here and there.  Within a few days, the entire bush is covered with flowers ... there has to be at least a thousand of them right now.  Each flower is only about an inch and a half in diameter, but the effect of hundreds of clusters of them is amazing!

Climbing Rouletii is in a part of the Rose Field that is really bad shape right now ... honestly, it's one of the contributing factors in the awful appearance of that area.  I didn't get around to pruning it last year, and it's escaped from its arch and is flopping all over the paths and its neighboring roses.  While it is blooming, I will forgive Climbing Rouletii's wandering nature, because it is beautiful beyond belief ... even in this condition.

Climbing Rouletii is a rose that only blooms once per year.  I love roses like this, because they put all of their energy into one huge show every spring, then they recede into the background and gather strength to do it all again next year.  This rose has the extra added feature of its unusual, lacy foliage ... which is wonderful as filler in arrangements throughout the year.

When the flowers have faded, I will have to do some major surgery to get Climbing Rouletii back on its arch.  The canes I remove won't go to waste, however.  They will be a beautiful element in the flower arrangements that we plan to make for the tables for our daughter's wedding reception ... and propagation material for new roses for the nursery next year.

It's a beautiful, sunny, cool morning ... perfect for working in the garden.

Easy Care Heirloom Roses ... The List!

When I was asked to present a program on easy care heirloom roses, I decided to use the following criteria to create the list:

1.  Roses that respond the best in MY garden with minimal care ... meaning irrigation, fertilizer, and fungicide when I remember to do it.  I live in north central Virginia, which is USDA Zone 7A.

 2.  Roses that bloom with more flowers than my level of effort should produce.

 3.  Roses that look their absolute best in the worst of conditions.  At the end of a hot, dry summer these were among the stand-outs ... both in quality of flowers and the appearance of the bush itself.

I further narrowed the list to a manageable number that could be presented to a group in less than an hour, allowing time for questions. 

Let's sit for a while and look at lots of pretty rose pictures.  (Any of you folks with slow internet connections are going to hate me for this.)

Small Shrubs

 "Caldwell Pink", found rose

Polyantha, Lilac Pink, 3-4 feet, repeat blooming

White Pet, 1879

Polyantha, White, 2-4 feet, repeat blooming

Echo, 1914

Polyantha, Pink blend, 3-4 feet, repeat blooming

Ducher, 1869

China, White 3-4 feet, repeat blooming

La Marne, 1915

Polyantha, pink blend, 3-5 feet, repeat blooming

Apothecary Rose, bef. 1240

Gallica, dark pink, 3-4 feet, spring blooming

Rosa Mundi, bef. 1581

Gallica, pink striped, 3-4 feet, spring blooming

Medium Shrubs

 "Angel's Camp Tea", found rose

Tea, light pink, 4-6 feet, repeat blooming

Madame Antoine Mari, 1901

Tea, pink blend, 4-5 feet, repeat blooming

"Tutta's Pink Noisette", found rose

Noisette, light pink, 4-6 feet, repeat blooming

Duchesse de Brabant, 1857

Tea, light pink, 4-5 feet, repeat blooming

Marie Pavie, 1888

Polyantha, white blend, 4-5 feet, repeat blooming

Marie Daly, sport of Marie Pavie

Polyantha, light pink, 4-5 feet, repeat blooming

Charles de Mills, 1829

Gallica, dark pink, 4-5 feet, spring blooming

Large Shrubs

"Darlow's Enigma", found rose

Hybrid musk, white, 6-12 feet, repeat blooming

"Portland from Glendora", found rose

Portland, medium pink, 6-8 feet, repeat blooming

Sidonie, 1846

Portland, light pink, 6-8 feet, repeat blooming

Mutabilis, 1894

China, yellow blend, 4-8 feet, repeat blooming

Sarah Van Fleet, 1926

Rugosa, medium pink, 6-8 feet, repeat blooming

Madame Plantier, 1835

Hybrid alba, white, 5-12 feet, spring blooming

Shailer's Provence, 1799

Hybrid china, medium pink, 6-10 feet, spring blooming

Banshee, 1773

Hybrid damask, light pink, 6-8 feet, spring blooming

Repeat-blooming Climbers

Crepuscule, 1904

Noisette, apricot, 10-12 feet, repeat blooming

Climbing Pinkie, 1952

Climber, medium pink, 8-10 feet, repeat blooming

Alba Meideland, 1986

Climber, white, 10-12 feet, repeat blooming

Awakening, 1935

Climber, light pink, 12-16 feet, repeat blooming

New Dawn, 1930

Climber, light pink, 12-16 feet, repeat blooming

White Cap, 1954

Climber, white, 8-10 feet. repeat blooming

Parade, 1953

Climber, dark pink, 8-12 feet, repeat blooming

Spring-blooming Ramblers

"Peggy Martin", found rose

Hybrid multiflora, dark pink, 10-16 feet, scattered repeat

Alberic Barbier, 1900

Hybrid wichurana, white blend, 15-20 feet, spring blooming

Albertine, 1921

Hybrid wichurana, orange pink, 12-15 feet, spring blooming

Aviateur Bleriot, 1910

Hybrid wichurana, light yellow 15-25 feet, spring blooming

"Arcata Pink Globe", found rose

Hybrid setigera, light pink, 15-20 feet, spring blooming

Leontine Gervais, 1903

Hybrid wichurana, apricot blend, 20-30 feet, spring blooming

Gardenia, 1899

Hybrid wichurana, white blend, 16-24 feet, spring blooming

Ghislaine de Feligonde, 1916

Hybrid multiflora, yellow blend, 8-12 feet, spring blooming

As I said in THIS post from earlier in the month ... if you want easy care roses, you have many choices beyond Knock Out.  The roses I presented here are mostly available at specialty nurseries, and they usually cost less than the Knock Outs that you see at the big box stores.  Why not grow a piece of history in your garden?

This is by no means a comprehensive list of ALL roses that grow well with minimal care ... these are some of the roses that please ME the most. I offer them, hoping that they might also please you. 

Do you have a rose or two that you grow that you think should be on this list?  I would love to hear about it.

Easy-Care Heirloom Roses

This Sunday, February 13, I will present a program for the Arlington Rose Foundation titled "Easy-Care Heirloom Roses".  The meeting, at Merrifield Garden Center in Fairfax, Virginia, starts at 2:00pm, and I will begin my program shortly thereafter.

I wrote this program to show folks that there are plenty of roses available for your garden that don't require heroic measures to look good and bloom. 

Most people get their rose information from mainstream nurseries or big-box stores.  These locations are driven by their suppliers, who buy whatever the reps are pushing, and this has increasingly become exclusively some sort of Knock Out rose.  This leads folks to think that their only options for easy-care roses are Knock Outs. 

We HAVE choices!! Don't feel as if you HAVE to plant a Knock Out rose ... unless a Knock Out rose is what you WANT to plant.

"But I HAVE to plant Knock Out", you say, "because other roses are hard to grow."  

WRONG!!!  There are SOME roses that take more effort to grow than others.  These are NOT the ones I'm talking about. 

The roses that I am featuring in this program grow and flower and thrive with minimal care.  Nothing in the garden is completely maintenance free.  Give these roses water and fertilizer, and perhaps the occasional spritz of fungicide (though not required), and they will reward your effort many times over.

My program is divided into sections:  Small shrubs, Medium shrubs, Large shrubs, Repeat-flowering climbers, and Spring-flowering ramblers.  This should provide more than enough choices for whatever situation you have in your garden.

Within each of the shrub categories, I am featuring both repeat-flowering roses and once-blooming Old Garden Roses.  Both of these types are very valuable in the garden, and I try to show folks that they need not limit their choices to repeat-blooming varieties.  (Banshee, the beauty I show above, is a once-bloomer, and the shrub without flowers is beautiful all season long.)

By the time I get to the end of the program, and I have answered the last question, I hope folks will leave having been introduced to at least one rose that they will want to add to their garden.

If you are local, I hope you can come out on Sunday to hear me speak.  I would love to meet you.  If you can't come, check back here next week and I will publish the whole list of the roses I feature.  I would do it now, but I'm still editing it a bit ... I may add one or two to the list between now and Sunday.