[gardeners] killing roses
Liz Albrook (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 21 Jul 1998 07:26:33 +0000
Seyfried,Alice <gardeners@globalgarden.com> wrote:
> I was sad to see them go, too because I love roses also; but I just
> didn't have the time to care for them properly.
You had the wrong kind of roses. The Jackson and Perkins type roses
require a lot of care but there are many, many roses that require
less care than lawns or carpets. Look for hybrid rugosas, many of
the Buck roses, almost anything from the Canadian Explorer series --
they are carefree. Buy them as tiny twigs on their own roots, plant
them and stand back -- they are remarkably hardy and vigorous.
The more I find out about old garden roses the more mystified I am by
the popularity of hybrid teas and floribundas. There are old garden
roses of every size and shape (when was the last time you looked at a
hybrid tea and thought the bush, not the flowers, was lovely and
graceful?), that require almost no pruning, insecticides, fungicides
or fertilizer. It's not that hybrid teas and other modern roses are
bad -- it's that they are fussy. I'm too lazy to keep them.
Liz