Roses

Roses are the bouquets of our late spring and summer gardens!  A fantastic rose garden is within reach of anyone with any level of gardening experience. Understanding the basic care and making the right selection for you is essential.

For the beginning gardener, low maintenance Knockout Roses have become a phenomenal choice to start with. They are highly disease resistant and come in a variety of pink to red color choices including a new yellow, 'Sunny Knockout'. Other easy to grow types are classified as shrub or landscape roses. These could include floribunda roses which produce many roses for a long period of bloom on shrubby plants. These vary in disease resistance so check for hardiness.

For those who desire traditional cutting roses, Hybrid Tea or Grandifloras might be best. These roses offer a great variety of color, petal count and fragrance intensity. They also may require some treatment for disease control.

Climbing roses help complete the rose picture by offering a chance to display your plants in a vertical fashion. These roses do not climb; they simply grow taller than many other types of roses and are suited to life on a trellis.

Fertilizing with a balanced fertilizer like Rose tone and Miracle Gro for roses will be good options for keeping your roses happy. Check for sign of black spot and treat immediately with a fungicide such as Safer Fungicide or Fungenex. Insects will mar the beauty of our shrubs so periodically look for their damage and treat with Safer Rose and Flower Care or Ortho's Rose and Flower RTU Spray.

Combination products such as Orthenex will treat both insects and black spot. Bayer's Rose and Flower Systemic will not only treat disease and insects but also fertilizes.