I planted roses in Columbus the same year it rained every day, well into June. As a result, I was cutting hybrid tea roses every day. Children lived on our court, and they were fascinated by the flowers. I cut roses for them to give to their mothers, as long as they properly identified the rose. Soon I had them asking for Fragrant Cloud and Oregold roses, instead of just pointing. They had their favorites, and their mothers loved getting roses rather than a handful of dandelions.
I look through catalogs and websites to pick flowers, but my dominant choice is always going to be roses. They are easy to grow and cut, and everyone likes them the most. We can be thankful that the perpetual rose was combined with the tea rose to give us long-stemmed roses that bloom all summer.
Would you rather get a dozen crepe myrtle blooms or a dozen roses?
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| The crepe myrtle bush loves sun and grows 12 feet tall, more when allowed. The flowers are showy during that blooming season. |
Roses need their own garden. The only competition should be a garlic-family plant or - in some cases - miniature roses. I never invested much in miniature roses, because they cost as much as full-sized roses and yield tiny flowers.
I have some 12 inch tall sunflowers planted in the rose garden for now. Mrs. I feared I was planting Russian striped mammoth, ugly, overhanging, shading everything sunflowers. But no - these grow up 12 inches and bloom. I promised to cut them away if they detracted from the roses.
Next year I will spread garlic chives among the roses. They will yield potent grassy plants that spread and protect the roses from insects and disease. Roses love garlic, and garlic chives will spread through their roots.
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| Queen Elizabeth roses are taller and have the ultimate bud that opens up into a stunning flower, a royal rose indeed. |
The best covering for a rose garden is wood mulch. I combined these elements for rose growth:
- Two shipments from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm were spread around the yard, plenty for the roses.
- I planted with Miracle Gro "soil" which was treated with slow release fertilizer.
- Our helper assisted me in covering the entire lawn area with newspapers.
- We covered the newspapers with bags of black-dyed wood mulch.
- I snaked black soaker hose across the rose garden.
- I added four solar lights, three above, and a string of solar faerie lights.
We simply dug holes in the law for the new bare root roses, which were on sale for $8 each. I filled the holes with soil and Miracle Gro soil and watered each rose heavily for days.
The newspapers and mulch came next, then the lights and soaker hose.
I added eight more roses from the local nursery, so we had a brilliant burst of color before the hybrid tea roses began to bloom.
Underneath the mulch and newspapers the grass began to rot, making perfect high-nitrogen compost for the roses. Earthworms from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm were everywhere, the best diggers known as red wigglers. I could tell we were getting plenty of underground action. The birds had a party disturbing the mulch for food, sometimes pecking down through the newspaper layer. I still find big pieces of mulch thrown from the garden, probably from the search for food.
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| "Sure I played with the newspaper mulch in the backyard, and tore it to pieces. You can't possibly be upset over something that was so much fun." |
Don't blame Sassy. She plays in the backyard, but supervises in the front yard.
We had plenty of rain as the rose garden was starting out. Now we are in the dry part of the season. The soaker hose is good for using a little bit of water to keep the whole rose garden hydrated. How can I tell? I push my finger into the soil on the margin and check for dampness.
If the nappies are wet,
the roses are set.
The work of tending roses is the most fun. I cut off all dead wood and remove the blooming roses. See John 15:1-10 for the same thing done with grapevines. The roses go on the altar and are shared with friends. Our helper and his wife love to get them.
I understand that all colored roses come from the Persian yellow rose. Before that, all roses were yellow.
People talk glibly about hybrid roses, about the thousands of trials started to bring one new rose to market. They seldom mention that all the DNA information for those roses was imparted in the rose from the Day of Creation.
The Olympiad red rose was waiting to be discovered from the beginning of time. The hybrid teas that have great aroma were there, but not yet evident.
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| Double Delight - all the beauty of a bi-color rose, plus perfume, ready to be discovered from the moment God created roses. "All things were made through Him, and nothing was made apart from Him." John 1 |
