A Rose Is A Rose

I guess I am a rose person because I have many.  The roses I grow are mostly shrub roses with only one hybrid tea that I have struggled with over the past few years.  It was the Rose of the Year so I figured I had better keep it and try to work it into the garden.

Pink Promise had a little frost bite this year but overall rewarded me with some beautiful fragrant blooms poking through the Becky Shasta Daisies.

Carefree Beauty is a favorite, loose and casual with very large flowers.  It can get a little floppy and I have seen this variety tied to a trellis.

Mary Rose is from David Austin beautiful and fragrant with peony like flowers.

Roses do require pruning and fertilizing if they are going to look their best.  I know they say the shrub roses do not need to be pruned, but I find they sometimes need it the most to remain controlled and to produce multiple flowers.

Carefree Delight is a taller rose that blooms in clusters, great for peeking out over lower growing plants.

Roses look good in the border together and with other green plantings.  Mary Rose, All The Rage  and Carefree Delight are intermingled.

Rainbow Knockout in the back perennial border, the best performing shrub rose ever.  It is the first to bloom in the spring and the last to bloom in the fall.

Rainbow Knockout

You won't see Rainbow Knockout at the shopping malls, although it would have been a great choice.  It has now become difficult to find in my area because the public didn't think it was eye popping enough in the containers.

Double Knockout does better in my area than the single but I grow both.  I prefer the shape of the single one.  You don't have to deadhead but I usually snip off the wilted flowers like the ones in the photo!

Sunny Knockout is the only fragrant Knockout Rose.  However, this one has not been a great performer for me.  It may not like being in the border peeking out.

I have all of the Knockout roses, including Blush, Single Pink, Double Pink and Single Red.

Knockout Blush is a light pink with the petal structure of Rainbow.  I have not seen this one on the market for a few years.

Knockout Double Pink

Single Red Knockout

It is important to note that not all Knockout roses perform the same depending upon the zone in which you live.  The original single red is a beauty but did not do as well in the colder climates as the double red.  The double is more upright and in my opinion does not have as pleasing a shape as the single.

Pink Meidiland is a wonderful rose, tall, light, a free spirit

This rose is difficult to find and I have ordered it from California bare root, has never been a problem.

Cinco de Mayo

This is also a Rose of the Year winner, shrub rose, and looks better this year than ever, subtle smokey tones.

This is Home Run Red, one of roses I trialed last year and so far it is a winner.

Home Run Pink

I think this is my favorite because I like pink!

Roses in the border mixed with later flowering perennials are a great pop of color when the spring perennials are done.  They also help cover up the foliage of the Bleeding Hearts, Daffodils, Tulips, Iris and Allium.

Try some roses in your border!

Looking For Beauty

It is not difficult this year finding beauty everywhere as I look around the garden.  The roses are bigger and better than ever (although I do notice some brown fringes on the petals from the frosts that occurred before they opened).

Carefree Beauty is huge this year!  There were years I almost pulled it out because it just didn't seem to be flourishing.

Pink Promise is my only hybrid tea that I purchased packaged with a shrub rose.  Both were All America Winners.  This one was almost pulled because for the last few years it did nothing, small flowers and very few branches.

This year Pink Promise certainly deserves the award, huge blooms with a wonderful fragrance.

Cinco De Mayo

This is the shrub rose that came packaged with Pink Promise.

I have decided not to use annuals this year in the border.  The impatiens were getting so large that they interfered with the roses.

Rainbow Knockout

This is a rose that is the first to bloom in the spring and the last to bloom in the fall.

The back border is full and just about ready to give up the spring blooming flowers to make way for summer blooms.

I was surprised when I saw the fritillaria coming up because I did not remember planting them.  I think I bought them at the Morton Arboretum last fall.

This small border is to the side of the veggie garden and has really filled in this year.  Geranium Magnificum is a short bloomer, so it will be cut down to make new leaves which turn red in the fall.  The space is shared with Heuchera Carmel and Miracle, Max Frei Geranium Sport and spring flowering bulbs.

Mary Rose( David Austin Rose Shrub Rose)

This is my favorite rose not just because of the way it looks but the fragrance is intoxicating.  It is a rebloomer.

Celosia Intenz

This is a new introduction that is supposed to grow about two feet tall and wide.  I have never had much luck with celosia but I couldn't resist trying this one because of the flower and leaf color.

La Bella Snapdragon

I grew this from seed last spring but it got crowded out last summer in the south border.  It came back this year because of the mild winter, moved it to a better location, and it is just beautiful.

Krinkled White Peony

This is my only peony, might find room for some tree peonies that rise above the other border plants.

The best of the best petunias, Bordeaux and Bubblegum!

Gaura Picotee

Sometimes a perennial, sometimes an annual but I am trying it in my south side raised bed to add some color before the daylilies bloom.

Dicentra Spectablis Red Valentine

These are new this spring and in a bed on the north side where they can die down undisturbed without affecting the growth of any other plantings.  I think I will move the pink ones into this area, another redo!

Rouge Cardinal Clematis (Type III)

The Type III clematis are just beginning to bloom.  Now is the time to cut down the Type II's as they finish their major display if you want to rejuvenate them for next spring.

Rose Fever

I don't know how this happened, it came on very slowly.  I put in a few Knockout Roses in the front garden and a few more in the back garden.  I figured I could handle these because they are supposed to be virtually carefree.

Red Double Knockout

Then, I saw a tall elegant rose up in town when I was shopping at the garden shop and I had to have that one also, Carefree Beauty.  I now have two of these.

Carefree Beauty

Many new Knockouts were introduced and I had to try all of them, Blush, Sunny, Pink, Doubles and Rainbow (my favorite) and All The Rage.  Throw in a few Pink Meidilands, winning floribunda and hybrid tea, Cinco de Mayo and Pink Promise.

Rainbow Knockout

Pink Knockout

All The Rage

Cinco de Mayo

Pink Promise

Pink Meidiland

Least I forget I had to have at least one rose (I have three) with fragrance so Mary Rose (David Austin) is the queen of the garden.

David Austin's Mary Rose

As I had previously mentioned I was invited to a luncheon in Chicago by Proven Winners Choice to meet the hybridizer of a new rose called Home Run, both pink and red.  I just had to try these so I ordered one pink and one red from a grower in California.

In the meantime, Spring Meadow Nursery who markets Proven Winners Choice asked if I would like to trial the Home Run Roses.  I said sure, what's one more rose!  Hence, I now have six little red Home Run roses and they are already blooming.

These are the first four I received, two more after this, small but healthy and all ready to bloom.

Home Run Rose

I have a small garden and there are roses peeking out everywhere, and as I said I'm not sure how this happened!

All of my roses are being fed Bayer Systemic 3 in 1 formula but I am not spraying the new Home Runs.  I have already had an infestation of rose midges and aphids on my other roses for which I have had to spray.  Home Run is supposedly disease and insect resistant with no deadheading, so far there is not an insect or disease in sight on these roses. 

*The Home Runs are placed in many different conditions, full sun, part sun, between many perennials, by themselves.  They are very little right now and are blooming with an eventual height of three to four feet.  Their flowers are stunning, bright red with a distinct yellow center.

*No remuneration from Proven Winners

Proven Winners Home Run Rose

We gathered for lunch looking out on Lake Michigan to hear hybridizer Tom Carruth tell us the history of two new rose introductions Home Run Red and Home Run Pink.  Our group was a mix of landscape designers, garden writers of blogs, books and newspapers and representatives of the plant growing and marketing industry.

This rose has been marketed in limited supply by Weeks Roses (who does not sell to the public) and now will be marketed on a large scale to the general public by Proven Winners Color Choice.

Home Run Red

Home Run Red is a cross of City of San Francisco and Baby Love, with their offspring then being crossed with the original Knockout Rose.  The result is the best of all worlds,  The new Home Run Red is a brighter truer red, resists powdery mildew (which the original Knockout did not) and black spot, shrub-like growth habit, quick repeat flowers, first rose to bloom in spring and fragrant buds.

City of San Francisco

Baby Love

The foliage is a deeper glossy green, more compact and hardier than the original Knockout.  The growth is spiky at first and with continued growth becomes shrub-like.  I was surprised that Home Run can set hips but does not stop flowering.

Original Knockout

The one thing that all rose people will have to remember with this plant, no deadheading recommended!  The new buds form right where the spent flower falls off so any deadheading will cut down on the continual flower display.

Home Run Red should be plentiful this year but the pink (a sport of Home Run Red) is still only offered in small pots through online nurseries.  If the pink one (which would be my choice) is your desire try these nurseries http://www.shrubsource.com/, http://www.greatgardenplants.com/ and http://www.gardencrossings.com/

These are the websites that were given to me that would possibly be marketing small containers of Home Run Pink.  In checking them at this time only Great Garden Plants is carrying Home Run Red.  I guess we can check back later to see if they are added to their websites.

Home Run Pink

Check out Mr. Brown Thumb's Blog for another look at Tom Carruth the hybridizer of Home Run. http://mrbrownthumb.blogspot.com/