Choosing new roses

 

It used to be that choosing roses was as simple as picking the ones whose flowers I liked best. Even that pleasurable activity was daunting due to the multitude of varieties available, and photographs in catalogs showed many varieties that looked similar. That was many years ago, and in a different climate. Many purchases and growing years later, I’ve learned that there is much more to choosing a rose than that photograph of the flower that a catalog shows. First of all, the photo doesn’t show the size of the bloom and the plant once in the garden my have blooms of a different size than expected. It may bloom very differently than the photograph. There may be less or even more petals. The form that was so lovely in the photograph may be transient or even entirely different. The color may be very different, rich yellows in photographs may rapidly fade to off white or even open pale. These variations are not necessarily false advertising, as all of these things may vary depending on climate or the catalog showing what the blooms CAN look like in the brief moments of their most beautiful stage (beauty being in the eye of the beholder). This doesn’t even touch on the vagaries of fragrance, also subject to advertising hyperbole and to climatic variations. 

I soon realized that the beauty of the bloom is actually one of the least important qualities to consider when choosing a rose for the garden. Unless the plant will be in an out-of-sight cutting garden, the most important thing in choosing a rose bush is how it will actually look in the garden. Will it grow tall and stringy? Short and bushy? Will it spread out or be just a bean pole? Will it form a tall graceful fountain? Will it even like its location at all and grow? What form will the shrub contribute to the garden? This is a much more important quality to consider but not something a catalog or a plant in a pot at the nursery will show you. 

Then there is disease resistance. Roses are susceptible to many diseases depending on the climate, and some climates are horrible for rose diseases. Some varieties are much more resistant to disease such as blackspot and powdery mildew than others. Some are very susceptible to insect damage such as thrips. Here, I have terrible thrips, but not foliar disease, so in that at least, I am lucky.

Another thing the catalog won’t show you is how often the shrub will bloom. We tend to get the impression from catalogs that roses are ever-blooming, always covered in perfect flowers. This is far from the truth. The original European roses and species only bloom for a few weeks in the late spring. Most modern roses are bred to bloom throughout the growing season, but that doesn't mean that they will or how much they will if they do. How long a bloom lasts is also not something a catalog or label will tell you. Some roses blooms last only a few hours or few days, whereas some last for a week or more. Some of this may be due to how a rose responds to a particular climate, or it may be its character. The most beautiful rose in the world will not find a place in my garden if the blooms last for only a few hours once a year. Or if it doles out a few blooms once in a while. 

So now I have probationary status on my roses and many rose growers do the same. It takes a few years for a rose to show its character, and how it will respond to MY conditions. So now I plant a new rose in a pot for a year or two to see how it does. It is not necessarily how it will perform in the garden, with different soil/potting mix quality, and different root competition, but it gives an idea. Above, I decided to put 'Olivia Rose Austin' in the ground, taking out one of my 'Evelyn' roses, since 'Evelyn' grows tall and stringy with not many blooms even if they are gorgeous and fragrant. I'm not terribly confident that Olivia will be satisfactory, since I was not impressed with her at the beginning. But her repeat bloom was very good and she developed much better blooms as the plant grew.