Regional Growing Guide: New England
New England's erratic winter and spring temperatures, which might shift more than 50 degrees from one day to the next, can exact their toll on roses. Savvy gardeners winterize their plants by covering them with mulch, then wrapping them in woven mulch cloth or burlap to protect from both the cold and drying winds. The wraps come off in spring, and by June, the roses are in full bloom. Intense heat during July and August may slow down the plants, but they will bounce back with renewed vigor in September. Many of the most successful roses are new landscape roses and floribundas that are cold hardy and resist black spot and mildew.
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Bouquets
June's rose blooms don't compare to the roses in late summer and fall. The rose plants have had a whole season with lots of water, nutrition and tender loving care. The bugs and blights have come and gone, and what I have left is picture-perfect rose bushes with glossy green foliage and spotless flowers, perfect for enjoying in arrangements.
Cutting Roses
Don't hesitate to cut roses for indoor enjoyment; it does the plant no harm, and multiplies your enjoyment. Cut flowers in the morning or early evening. Put stems in a pail of lukewarm water as you cut them, and keep the cut roses in water in a cool, dark place until you are ready to arrange them. However, avoid cutting roses after October first; every cut on a rose bush encourages new growth, which could get nipped by a fall cold snap. So cut all the roses you want up until then, and let the plants gear down for winter starting in October.
Drying Roses
Cut roses can be enjoyed in a vase for a week or so or dried to be enjoyed for years. Dried roses make stunning Christmas wreaths and decorations. To dry them gather up some borax, yellow or white cornmeal, and an airtight plastic container. Mix up the borax and cornmeal in a ratio of 1 part borax to 4 parts cornmeal in the bottom of your plastic container. Make a little hollow in the mixture to gently nest the rose. Pour more borax mixture over the rose slowly and gently, making sure it filters between and under each petal. Petals need a little support from underneath so they can dry in the exact form you see today.
Seal the container, label it with the date, and set it right side up where it won't be disturbed for at least 2 weeks. At the end of that time, carefully unearth the rose. If it isn't thoroughly dried, place it back into the borax for another week. Experience will teach you which roses dry best, and how long to leave them to dry. Dried roses take on a color of their own. Red roses usually dry to an almost black, shaded with dark red. White roses dry to a cream color, and yellow and pink roses dry pretty much true to their original color. Once dried, attach them to wreaths and flat arrangements with a glue gun for holiday decorations.
Shrub Roses: An Exciting Addition to the Home Landscape
Picture a flowering shrub that, depending on the way it's pruned and trained, may sprawl over the ground, climb a trellis, or be a tidy mound. This shrub is covered with glossy foliage with no black spots, and hundreds of often sweet-smelling blossoms. Best of all, it is unassuming enough not to need any maintenance except for occasional aesthetic pruning and once-a-season fertilizing.
Virtues of Shrub Roses
We're taking about a shrub rose, also called a landscape rose or a modern rose. This relatively new category of roses has been developed over the past couple of decades, and it's causing gardeners to reconsider what a rose really is.
These roses have an unlimited variety of uses in the landscape. They make great bedding plants, hedges, ground covers, container plants, trailers along a wall, or climbers on trellises. They can softly drape a window or fence, edge a sidewalk or driveway, frame a deck, or simply add color to a perennial border.
Roses With a Carefree Attitude
Shrub roses are, by nature, bred to be resistant to black spot and powdery mildew, two common rose diseases, although they are not necessarily immune to all pest problems. Best of all, landscape roses are also by nature hardy enough not to need winter protection. Most are now grown on their own roots, so even if a particularly severe winter kills back branches, the plant that resprouts in spring is the same plant, not an unattractive rootstock.
So, next time you ponder just what to plant as a ground cover or to edge your garden walkway, consider a shrub rose!