Best of 2008: Part 4: Favorite Roses

I am a fairly new rose gardener. Thinking roses were high maintenance I never wanted to mess with them. When I moved here I decided to give roses a try. Now we have discovered hardy roses that can grow in many locations around our place and aren't as much work as we thought. My favorite roses change from year to year based on how different varieties perform. Here were my winners from the last blooming season.

a gift a few years ago to JEJ... " Livin' Easy" chosen for the blooms that keep coming and coming!
"Honey Perfume"...a winner for the lovely fragrance that fills the garden when it blooms.
"Golden Showers" was the climber that JEJ picked as his favorite ."Fourth of July "climber is always a colorful addition to our deck garden.
The "Pink Iceberg" won us over for all the buds and blossoms during the growing season.
"The America" was the winner for lasting the longest. We cut this blossom for our Thanksgiving bouquet. Simply amazing.

Comments

  1. Anonymous7.1.09

    I have three rugosas that have gone above and beyond what I thought they'd do. I wanted them to take up a corner of the yard so the mailman would stop walking over our lawn, and they have not only grown hugely in their original holes, they have sent runners through the bed so that it's truly becoming impassable. And since they are two pinks and a white, we now have a lovely surprise with each new bit that pokes above ground. They're all intermixed.

    We ALSO have a climber next to our front door that was here when we bought the house. It was a sad, pathetic little thing. That first fall, I removed all the red lava rock and black plastic that surrounded it, cut down the juniper bush that was its sole companion, double-dug the bed with two different kinds of manure, plus compost, and added a bunch of new plants. The following spring, I gave it ONE dose of seaweed compost tea. It has never looked back. There were hundreds of roses on it this June, and that was after I cut it back pretty severely in May.

    If a rosebush is happy, you hardly have to do anything for it at all. Who knew they could be so simple?

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  2. They are each exquistely beautiful.

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  3. "Just keep a living along no matter in sunlight or song, just know when it's snowin , God's roses are growin and just keep a livin along.:"

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  4. Sally... I am surprised how easy they are also. Our trick is to use rabbit manure which is why we got rabbits. It is a cold fertilizer and can be added any time.
    Yolanda... doesn't it make you yearn for summer?
    i beati... great lines and I just have to remember those roses are still under that snow!

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  5. the rabbit fertilizer, in addition to not being hot, must be high in potassium because your foliage is just wonderful! such nice thoughts, these roses of yours, on a cold winter day...

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  6. Quite beautiful! Makes me wish I had a place to grow my own! I am definitely enjoying yours in this space, though!

    I love that Dickinson poem BTW =)

    And...I read Beautiful Boy this summer and found it heart wrenching and inspiring. There's another book that follows it, but I've not read it yet...

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