Gardening and Roses
Using Roses in the Landscape
Gardening and roses is about the many ways in which rose bushes can be used around the house and yard. Pictures of roses and rose gardens illustrate gardening with roses. Gardening tips for roses.
Rose Garden Picture
Elizabeth Park in Hartford, CTPlanting roses in beds of their own is the most conventional way of gardening with roses but by no means is it the only way to use these versatile garden plants. Some types of roses--Hybrid Teas spring to mind--do prefer to be segregated in this way. They do not like to share their food and water with other plants. If you grow Hybrid Tea roses for cutting purposes, it might be a good idea to tuck them away in a back yard bed. They are not the most attractive of rose plants due to their upright growth habit and tendency to drop their lower leaves. And they won't even have their big fragrant flowers to adorn them once you've harvested those for the vase.
If you like the look of roses massed together in beds, Shrub roses or any of the Large Cluster-flowered roses will make a better garden display than the HTs.Floribundas and Shrub roses are also quite amenable to being planted with perennials or sun-loving annuals.
Flower and Roses Gardening
These roses are growing in raised beds with lots of other plants in an organic rose garden.Knock Out roses are the most popular Shrub roses in the U.S. at present but they are not the only disease resistant landscaping roses available to you. Carefree Delight and Carefree Beauty roses are just as lovely and easy to grow.
This picture shows Scarlet Meidiland and Iceberg Floribunda roses used in a mixed planting with ornamental grasses, sunflowers and a purple butterfly bush .
Buy a Weeping Pink Rose Tree Here Miniature roses are the type best suited to pot culture but any rose can be grown in a container that is spacious enough to accommodate its mature root system. Of course, smaller plants (3-4 feet) make the best container gardening roses. Think about the potential weight of the pot once the soil is in it. If you are planting roses in pots which are winter hardy in your area and the pots will not need to be moved, this may not be a consideration. If you plan to use the roses to fill temporary gaps in the landscape or to bring them under cover in the winter, choose the size of container you can handle first. Then, find a rose that can live happily in a pot that size.
Vertical Gardening and Roses
Climbing roses add another level of interest to the garden. You can use rose arches to fill the air above your head with fragrant flowers. There is something so romantic about walking or sitting under a rose arbor. The aging petals fall silently around you to the path below carpeting it with rose confetti. Another way to use Climbers is to dress an expanse of naked wall. Too much hardscape can make an outdoor space seem emotionally cold. Flowers and foliage can be used to soften and warm it up. Notice how the white Climbing roses above soften the stone wall behind them while also extending the garden into the air.
Here, they adorn a brick wall.
If there is a window in your wall, be sure to choose a fragrant rose and train it closely around the window so that you can see the blooms from inside. On pleasant days, you can open the window and let the sweet rose perfume waft in to freshen the room.
Picture of a red rose trained around a cottage window.
Gardening Tips for Roses Planted Against Walls: If the wall needs painting or soon will, paint it before planting the Climbing rose.Choose a flower color that contrasts strongly with the color of the wall. If they match or blend too well, the blooms will tend to disappear. Do not be afraid to make use of bold colors as the gardener who planted this red Blaze rose against this milk white shed has done.
Climbing roses can sometimes be used as a groundcover. This is something few gardeners think to do with them. As long as the rose grows densely enough to suppress weeds and has flexible canes, this will work a treat.
Here, the red-flowered Blaze scrambles over an arbor and also blankets the ground behind it. Landscaping with Groundcover Roses offers more ideas to inspire you in this area of gardening with roses. Gardening and Roses
Using Climbers as Specimens
The Lady Banks 'Lutea'rose in the image above is being used as a specimen plant in a rock garden. The color contrast is much more subtle in this beautiful planting.Pruning this old garden Rambler in this fashion makes excellent use of its natural weeping growth habit. Any Climbing or Rambling rose whose canes are not too stiffly upright can easily be pruned into a large specimen. Just give it plenty of room. Gardening and Roses
Growing Roses into Trees
Here is the same Climbing Lady Banks rose trained into a tall tree. If you want to grow a rose into a tree, it is important that you choose a shade tolerant rose and plant it beneath a tree that is large and sturdy enough to support the mature rambler.
Gardening and Roses on Fences
All the elements which comprise this front yard sing in perfect harmony. The white picket fence is a perfect accent for this robin's egg blue Victorian and a wonderful backdrop for the pink roses and rose cleome planted on both sides of it.
This pink Climbing rose is the perfect color and type to complement this natural wooden fence.Buy the Cold Hardy, Disease Resistant, Pink Climbing Viking Queen Rose Here
Gardening and Roses
Winter Interest
Here, rose hips on a Climbing rose lend winter interest to the landscape.If you leave your roses untrimmed after the last fall flush, they will set hips. These can be anything from the size of a raisin to the size of a golf ball depending on the variety of rose. When the hips ripen they turn bright orange or red. The larger hips can be quite showy at a time when there isn't much color in the garden. Rose Gardening Tip: If you garden organically, you can harvest the hips and make vitamin packed rose hip tea and jam.
More Info About Gardening and RosesDiscover What Different Roses Symbolize Everything You Need to Know About Pruning Roses Go from Gardening and Roses to Must Have Rose Gardening Tools Go from Gardening and Roses back to Plant Guides Home Page
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Professional horticulturist Norm Stewart has written an ebook, Expert Rose Care which is a very good value.