Planting a Rose

There are all sorts of complicated methods that some folks will tell you must be followed in order to correctly plant a rose.  Complicated is not what I do around here ... but you already know that.  Most of the roses I plant are small, usually one-year-old own-root plants growing in half-gallon or one-gallon pots.  

The subject of today's demonstration is a plant that I rooted from cuttings of a rose in the Historic Sacramento City Cemetery, thought to have been brought to California from Virginia.  I call it "Unknown China from Virginia".  Whatever it is, with its Virginia connection, I asked and was given permission to take cuttings, in order to take this rose back 'home'.

I planted this rose in the expanded section of my Rambler Garden, along with nine other roses that had lived in their little pots for WAY too long.  This is what I did:

1.  Marked the location, and swept back the existing mulch to expose the landscape fabric liner on this garden.

2.  Cut a good-sized hole in the liner.  For this rose, the diameter of the hole is three-times the width of the pot.

3.  Dig a hole the same depth as the pot and twice as wide, carefully tip the rose out of its pot, place it in the hole and put the soil back into the hole around it.

4.  Weeds are such an awful problem for me.  To help suppress them, I cover the opening in the landscape fabric with a good layer of newspaper, tucked underneath the landscape fabric.

5.  Carefully put the mulch back around the new plant, covering the newspaper without piling it around the stem.

6.  For little guys like this, I add a cage of hardware cloth or chicken wire so the rabbits can't get to it.  I will remove the cage once the rose is a little bigger and no longer in danger of being eaten to the ground.

That's it!  A ten-minute job, at the most.  It takes a little bit longer if I have to dig a bigger hole to accommodate a larger plant, but it's still not a huge ordeal.  All that's left to do for this rose is to make sure that I keep it adequately watered.

(I can't wait to show you this little guy later this spring, as he gets bigger and fills in the space!  As soon as he produces a flower, you will be the first ones to know.)

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Want to learn how to root your own roses from cuttings?  This is the method that I use.
Hartwood Roses:  How to Root Roses from Cuttings

Friday Flowers: Open Garden on Sunday and Roses for Sale.

This whole week has been chilly and gray and rainy ... okay for helping the roses in the garden hold their remaining flowers (instead of frying in the heat, if we had heat) ... not so great for this gardener who had grand plans for sprucing up the place in preparation for visitors on Open Garden Day on Sunday.  Oh, well, the roses look better than they probably ever have even without any additional tidying.

One job that I couldn't put off was organizing my pot ghetto to separate the roses that I'm keeping from the roses that I plan to sell.  I wanted to do this well ahead of time, so I could compile an inventory list and gather photos for this post and for FB.  Most of these are extra plants from my propagation over the last year or two.  A few of them are roses that I was going to keep but have decided to part with instead.

Highlighted links below each photo take you to the rose's listing on Help Me Find, the best rose reference resource on the 'Net.

From Hollywood Cemetery:

"Hollywood Brandt Indica Major"

Once blooming, fragrant, and disease resistant.  Collected from a plant that grows on the Brandt lot in Hollywood Cemetery.

"Hollywood Alba Odorata"

Vigorous, repeat-blooming rose that thrives in hot weather.

Sold out.

"Hollywood Currie Multiflora"

Lanky, sprawling rose that grows on a cast iron fence on the Currie lot in Hollywood Cemetery.  May be a very nice example of 'Tausendschoen'.

"Hollywood Haxall Russeliana"

Large Hybrid China/Multiflora rose that grows on the Haxall lot in Hollywood Cemetery.  Recently identified as 'Russeliana'

Roses from other cemeteries:

'Banshee'

Very large, spring-blooming rose, that will spread moderately via suckers ... which is how I got mine.  Very cold hardy.  (this rose is too large to ship)

"Cemetery Musk Seedling"

Chance seedling found in the Sacramento City Cemetery rose garden.  Large shrub, repeat-blooming, and fragrant.

"Thornrose Pink Grootendorst"

Hybrid rugosa.  Repeat-blooming.  Collected at Thornrose Cemetery in Staunton, Virginia.

From the collection at Tufton Farm:

"Cross Manor Blush Noisette"

Identical to 'Blush Noisette' in commerce.  Collected from the garden at Cross Manor in Maryland.

"Mount Vernon Purple Noisette"

Same as "Mrs. Woods Lavender-Pink Noisette"  

"Ruth's Tiny Polyantha"

Tight clusters of 3/4" flowers, start pink and fade to white, on a plant that is less than three feet tall in the garden at Tufton Farm.

"Ruth's Wavy Leaf Noisette"

The foliage is glossy and healthy, and it has a slight wave to each leaflet.  Tall and fragrant.  Reblooms.

Other assorted roses:

'Edith Clark'

This rose is among the first to bloom in my garden.  The color is the same as 'Louis Philippe' and many of the other red China roses.  Needs fungicide for blackspot prevention.  (This rose is too large to ship.)

'Excelsa'

Hybrid multiflora rambler with large clusters of cherry red flowers, spring blooming.  Collected in Hanover County, Virginia.

'Lucetta'

David Austin English rose.  Large, repeat-flowering, and fragrant.

'Nozomi'

Climbing miniature rose that looks best when allowed to drape.  Spring blooming, with healthy foliage.  (this rose is too large to ship)

'Pookah'

Large, graceful Polyantha with large clusters of pink flowers that fade to white and very healthy foliage.

(In addition to the ones shown, I also have "Dr. Peck's 12th Avenue Smoothie", a found Hybrid China rose from California.)

Roses will be available for pick up during Open Garden on Sunday, and I am happy to ship to folks who can't be here in person.  Roses are all $20 each and quantities are VERY limited.  (Some of these have already sold in response to my post on the Hartwood Roses Facebook page last night.)  Send a PM to connie@hartwoodroses.com or leave a comment here with questions or to place an order.  Include your ZIP code, please.  I will confirm your order, calculate postage and handling (to cover materials and such) and send you a PayPal invoice.  (For those who don't use PayPal, a good old-fashioned check in the mail is just as good.)  I cannot ship to CA, AZ, OR, and a couple of other western states that I don't remember off the top of my head.

I'm excited to see what this year's Open Garden brings.  Lots of people have told  me that they're coming, and this place could be a madhouse... just the way I like it!

(I will do what I can between now and next week to take photos of the garden and put together a virtual Open Garden post for those of you who can't be here in person.  A photographer friend is coming by today to shoot, and I always have a camera on hand, so you will want to check back in later to see what we come up with.)

A Whole Lot of Roses Goin' On

Right now, most of what I am doing during the day revolves around roses in one way or another.  It's always this way in the spring and fall.  I have spent two days this week (so far) removing six of the eight roses in the Rose Field that are infected with Rose Rosette Disease.

Another rosy chore this week is working on a program that I am presenting to the Richmond Rose Society on Sunday ... showing the members what I saw during my trip to the rose conference in Sacramento two weeks ago.  It has been wonderful reliving the trip, as I sort and format a select number of the 1200+ photos I took while I was there. 

In a throwback to the 'Flowers on Friday' feature that I used to do here, sit back and enjoy some glamor shots of some beautiful roses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On The Road Again

I am attending a fantastic conference in California to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the historic rose garden at the Sacramento Old City Cemetery.  My husband tells me, when I do things like this, that I'm "conferring with my brother wizards".

I'm so excited to be here!!