<p>I am thinking of starting a rose garden – call me crazy, but I have to have something to do in my old age besides talk to my cats.</p>
<p>Any one out there a rose gardener? Any one have any recommendations for books, sources, roses? Am I headed down a bad road?</p>
<p>Not a gardener here, but for that reason maybe my recommendation will be helpful! I planted 3 New Dawn climbing roses years ago. One died the first year, but the others have been going strong despite complete neglect. The blooming season is very long, and the flowers are pale pink and fragrant.</p>
<p>I love roses! I too have a new dawn climber but it does not repeat bloom the way it’s supposed to. Anyone can get great results with knockout roses. They are continual bloomers and are beautiful. Lots of others are relatively easy to grow as well…depends on the type of rose you want and your conditions.</p>
<p>Knockout roses were bred near Milwaukee, and are so much better suited to the midwest climate. They are easy-care, which I cannot say for most cultivars. To illustrate: my parents, who live near Chicago, had over 100 different rose plants in their garden. A single midwest winter/spring killed over 90 of them.
If you do start a garden, plant some easy ones in with the challenging ones. Be sure to look into companion plants so the roses don’t look so leggy and stark in the off season.</p>
<p>I am about to give up on roses and pull them all out! Good luck!</p>
<p>midwesterner, I am glad to hear that about the knockout roses – it is a pale yellow single yellow Knockout rose that is tempting me. Live in the Iowa countyside, our winter winds can be a real killer.</p>
<p>I cultivate roses in the “rose city” (Pasadena). You know, home of the Rose parade, the Rose Bowl and all things Rosie? A neighbor,five houses up, has (gulp) over 500 rose bushes. Kind of makes my paltry dozen look a little meek. Any advice that you take, just make sure it is regional—I doubt that anything I could offer would have no bearing on growing roses in Iowa.</p>
<p>Oh so many years ago, my dad grew roses in Iowa. I do remember that he covered them in the winter with some type of cone.</p>
<p>Re gardening- plants that are native to the area are going to be much more acclimated to your weather & type of soil & you will be much happier with your results than if you try and grow things from an opposite climate.</p>
<p>That said, there will be growers in your area who have developed cultivars of plants that can be grown fairly successfully.
While roses need air circulation, I also suggest planting groundcovers and evergreen shrubs in their bed that will help with windburn.
( Alternately, you could hedge your bed with a low growing bush like wintergem boxwood that does fairly well in the winter)</p>
<p>These Buck Roses sound hardy
[92</a> species of Buck roses a living tribute to horticulturist - The Denver Post](<a href=“92 species of Buck roses a living tribute to horticulturist – The Denver Post”>92 species of Buck roses a living tribute to horticulturist – The Denver Post)</p>
<p>EK, thanks for the tip on Buck roses. DD went to ISU but I had never heard of these roses. I am always looking for hardy roses. Last year I bought two climbers off of ebay and they are doing wonderful. I will have to look up their names.</p>
<p>I live in Portland, OR (the other Rose City); one sister in upland desert California; one sister in Catskills of NY; last sister Jersey Shore; SIL in eastern Kansas. We <em>ALL</em> have good luck with the Knock Out roses. Other than that… what roses do well is absolutely regional.</p>
<p>I live in northern Indiana and have grown roses for 15 years. If you have cold winters, and especially wind, I would definitely advise using the styrofoam rose cones over them in the winter. Prune the rose enough it will fit, mound soil over the crown, put the rose cone on, dirt around the edges, a rock/brick on top to hold it. Roses here will die without these unless they are in a protected spot.</p>
<p>Oh my! I have some old favorites that I always have to have because of hardiness, beauty and fragrance. This list is a mix of hybrid teas, grandifloras, and floribundas.</p>
<p>Mr. Lincoln
Chrysler Imperial
Peace
Chicago Peace
Double Delight
Iceberg
Miss All American Beauty
Tropicana
Bewitched
Duet
Electron
Royal Highness
Tiffany
John F Kennedy (white with a touch of green)
Pascali
Angel Face</p>
<p>mom2collegekids, I’d love to see pictures of your rose garden!</p>
<p>re #4:
midwesterner, what companion plants do you recommend?</p>
<p>~mafool, a rose rookie</p>
<p>I <em>love</em> roses, but have not had much success. I had an unnamed english type rose that did fabulously at our previous house, I had bought it at an end of season sale and it had no tag.</p>
<p>My parents had a breathtaking shrub type rose plant, It had to be six feet high with large full, fragrant pink blossoms. I have been unable to determine what type it was, but I probably wouldn’t have as much success. They lived in a more temperate zone with better soil.</p>
<p>We (my wife and I) are big rose gardeners. Probably 120 bushes in our garden, counting the hedge roses.</p>
<p>A few tips:</p>
<p>Roses are actually easy - as long as you remember they want three things in large quantities- water, sunshine and fertilizer. </p>
<p>Decide early if you are going to use chemicals or not. If you are going organic, then you need to select your roses carefully to have any hope of success. Some, like Mr. Lincoln, are just mildew bombs waiting to happen. </p>
<p>If you decide that you can have your own little toxic waste dump - like we did - I highly recommend the Bayer 3-1 fertilizer. Apply once a month, knock out fungus, bugs and fertilize. </p>
<p>Next, figure out how to put a drip system into your rose garden area. Mine goes off at 4 in the morning. Roses hate getting their leaves wet - leads to mildew. A little drip on their feet is much better.</p>
<p>Look at the roses in your neighborhood. Find a local AARS society. They can help you make a list of the roses that will grow well in your area. Decide what kind of roses you want to grow - Hybrid Teas (huge showy flowers) Grandfloria (Lots of slightly smaller flowers), old english - great smell and shape - smaller flowers, etc.</p>
<p>Then buy them next winter - bare root. Half the price and better quality. </p>
<p>m2collegekids - You and I have a lot of the same roses. If you were to pick one - which one would it be? For me, Double Delight. Easy to grow, incredible scent, huge red and white flowers…</p>
<p>^^scualum gave really, really great advice.</p>
<p>There is really no such thing as an organic rose garden here in my neck of the woods. All organic rose gardeners eventually end up rummaging through the chemicals section of the local garden supply store… Rose fungus around here is vicious. My roses tend to do OK here in wet PNW because they are all concentrated in the front yard, which is facing south. My absolute favorite rose is Fragrant Cloud, a deep red, very, very fragrant rose which I found to be extremely resistant to fungus and aphids (actually, the best remedy for getting rid of aphids is… Windex, old ammonia formula). This rose is a prolific bloomer all summer long (I have to force it into dormancy in late October by picking off all leaves).</p>
<p>If I could have only one rose bush, it would be Mr. Lincoln.<br>
Deep red with a lovely fragrance.</p>
<p>Sadly, roses don’t do well where I live now, but orchids do!</p>
<p>I have clematis growing with my climbing roses. Jackmanii (purple) with my New Dawn and Henryii with my Blaze. I also have a zepherine drouhin climbing rose that tolerates shade very well. I have catmint and salvia and coreopsis and yarrow all as companions. Lots more but I’ll have to think about which are specifically with my roses. Oh, and I’ve had fantastic luck with Endless Summer hydrangea. I apologize for any spelling errors in my rose names.</p>