Growing Roses: Choosing A Variety And A Place For Planting, Purchasing Seedlings

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Read the previous part of the article - Growing a rose: where to start, which varieties of roses to choose

Purchase of seedlings

Over the past one and a half to two decades, there have been great changes in rose growing. A huge number of new varieties and even new groups of roses have appeared. Why is it so important to know which class a particular variety belongs to? Because it basically depends on what place in your garden you need to choose for planting a rose, how to cut it, how to cover it for the winter and, in general, what to expect from it.

Now rose seedlings can be purchased in many shops selling planting material, as well as at fairs and exhibitions, in nurseries. Among them there are foreign and domestic supplies. The seedlings are beautifully packed, the rose bloom is surely illustrated. When choosing, do not think that you will have it as beautiful. There will probably be 2-3 times less flowers - this is due to our weather.

None of the sellers will tell you about the disadvantages of the variety. Therefore, before buying a rose, go around gardening, see what the neighbors have and how their pets behave, consult knowledgeable gardeners.

Gardener's guide

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A first-class seedling should have two, preferably three shoots no thinner than a pencil. The stems should be green, semi-lignified and fresh. The peel on the shoots should be smooth, without cracks or wrinkles. The buds on the stems should be dormant and green.

If the rose belongs to the groups of hybrid tea, floribunda or polyanthus (now it is very rare), then the shoots on the seedling should be 20-25 cm long. If this is a group of climbing roses, then the shoots should be 75 cm long. But it's okay if the length is less - this is due to the convenience of packaging.

The stems of purchased seedlings, if they are not covered with a layer of paraffin, should be immediately washed with a strong jet of cold water - from the spider mite, which likes to settle in rose bushes.

The planting material can be sold with a closed root system or with open roots. In the latter case, the roots must be covered with slightly moist peat or sawdust. The roots should be well developed and have small, branched roots. If they are open and break when bent, and the peel on the shoots is unhealthy and wrinkled, then the bush is dry, you do not need to buy it. It is better to buy roses in a container or pot - there will be no such problems.

When buying, be sure to ask the seller about the class of the rose, the time of its flowering, the size of the bush, etc. If you purchased a seedling long before planting, you should try to keep it in a dark, cool place, water, if it starts to dry out, spray. The light stimulates the awakening of the kidneys. If the buds have begun to germinate, you need to put the bush in the brightest and coolest place, and before planting in the ground, you will have to accustom such a seedling to the sun, wind, i.e. temper.

Choosing a landing site

Let's see where you can plant a rose in our garden. Of course, not next to cabbage or potatoes. After all, the rose is the queen of the garden and should be treated like a queen. You need to choose a personal seat for her. And so that there are no dahlias or other lush and bright flowers near her.

The rose is such a beautiful plant that it does not need any neighborhood with other flowers. They will not decorate it. But she can decorate a flower garden, for example, in the company of lilies or with a delphinium, which is called the "knight of roses", small-flowered gypsophila, or sage - "a helpful companion of roses." However, we have a sin to plant a rose with other flowers. This is good in the south, where the rose is a common plant.

Roses can be grown on a bed or in a personal flower bed. Hybrid tea or polyanthus roses, as well as floribundas, grandiflora are suitable here. Just do not need to alternate between different species or even different varieties of the same species. Bad taste and variegation can result. Better to plant in groups of several bushes of the same variety.

Groups of roses or individual beautiful specimens look good against the background of the lawn. Standard roses are unusually beautiful here, especially if thin-leafed species are grafted onto the stem, in which the branches fall down - recently this is a "squeak of fashion".

From miniature roses or roses from the new patio group, you can form a pretty border. Only you need to plant them in pots so that they rise above the ground, otherwise they will hurt. The garden will also be decorated with flowerpots with rose bushes planted in them.

Along the fence, you can plant park roses such as wrinkled roses - you get an amazingly beautiful hedge. Walls draped with roses, fences, arches, gazebos look especially luxurious. Climbing and some semi-climbing and bush roses are suitable for this purpose. Of course, such options can only be used if the garden has a good workforce.

There are not so many varieties of these roses wintering in our region.

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Rose varieties suitable for growing in the conditions of the Leningrad region

Of the climbing ones, old winter-hardy varieties with lashes up to 4 m long are especially interesting.

Grade Dorothy Perkins (This class has more than 100 years) - blooms bunches of 30-40 small, with a diameter up to 3 cm, gustomahrovye pale pink flowers with a faint odor. Flowering is very abundant, lasts 3-4 weeks. After a month of rest, flowering in warm summer can be repeated, but very weakly. Leaves are beautiful: small, dark green, shiny.

The second rose - Excelsa - is exactly the same, only its flowers are deep pink, almost red, for which it is often called Red Dorothy Perkins. Both roses bloom on last year's shoots. Both of them are the most suitable for landscaping arches, arbors, because their thin flexible lashes wrap around the supports offered to them well.

Of the large-flowered climbing roses, the New Down variety grows well in our country - lashes up to 2 m. The flowers are amazingly pure, delicate pink, weakly double, 6-7 cm in diameter, very fragrant, collected in inflorescences of 3-6 flowers. Very beautifully shaped pointed buds open quickly, but the petals from the flowers quickly crumble. Abundant flowering, lasts three weeks. It blooms again at the end of summer. It blooms on the shoots of both the past and the current year. The variety is good for single plantings.

Domestic variety Mayak - lashes 3 m long, in July they are covered with simple red flowers, which just glow, as soon as the sun hides behind a cloud. The Lighthouse bushes are spectacular on the trellis, where they form a wall covered with shining flowers. Blossom on shoots last year.

Unpretentious beauty Paul's Scarlet Climber - in the second half of June is decorated with bouquets of 4-10 large red flowers, double and slightly fragrant. The leaves are large, shiny, the shoots are thick, strong, up to 2.5 m high.

Of the newer varieties, the most unpretentious and very beautiful is the Cordesa Flammentants rose. Powerful shoots up to 3-4 m, large flowers - double, densely red, bright, persistent, with a weak aroma. The inflorescence has 3-16 flowers. Blooms in July.

Both varieties bloom very profusely for a month on last year's shoots. Due to their thick, powerful stems, it is difficult to bend them to the ground for shelter for the winter. Having planted a couple of bushes at a distance of one and a half meters from each other, you can get an amazingly beautiful blooming wall 3-4 m long and high. They are beautiful in single plantings.

What roses love

For roses to feel comfortable in your garden, you need to indulge them in their passions. So, roses grow well and bloom only on fertile soils with a slightly acidic or neutral reaction of the medium (pH = 6.2-7).

The more sun, the more abundantly they bloom. However, the shade from the midday sun does not harm them. Roses love space, do not like tightness. They do not like winds, especially cold ones. They also do not like lowered areas, close standing groundwater. Where water can accumulate in spring or autumn, roses are planted on high ridges, otherwise they will die.

Read the end of the article - Growing a rose: caring for roses, pruning roses