What type of roses do you grow in your garden?

[Dora M]

I am not exactly an expert on roses, and wonder whether all rose varieties have similar needs? I really like those big, luscious Floribunda roses and would like to grow them around an old bird bath in my garden. Will they need a lot of care?

 

[claudine]

I often hear that roses need a lot of care, but I can say from my own experience that it's not entirely true. Roses were my very first plants I mostly grow miniature ones though, they're my favorite.
Floribunda roses will need a lot of pruning, I think, and you should fertilize them regularly.

 

[gata montes]

Yes they do all have similar needs and although they are all pretty tough and will survive most things - roses do need regular yearly pruning and feeding - in order to keep them looking their best.

However if you have quite a lot of them in the garden - they can become not so much hard work - but very time consuming - as all of them will require dead heading on a very regular basis and sometimes almost daily in the height of the blooming season - in order to keep them flowering profusely and looking good and of course by doing it - it helps to stop the mountain of spent petals from roaming around the garden - which can be rather bothersome - if you are one of those that likes a garden that looks neat and tidy

 

[Bandit26]

I couldnt tell you the names of my roses, but I have a climber and the rest the standard bush shape. I deadhead them during the growing season. Prune them some (probably not as much as I should), but often neglect them when I'm short on time since the veggies are the first priority. The only thing I really do for them is toss used coffee grounds at their bases. We had a brutal winter and I only lost 1 out of last years 6 I had growing and he didnt look so hot over the summer so I expected it. 4 of mine I put in back in 2001 when we bought the house and they are still going strong. Just added 4 more to the front walk and have 2 more to go in

Once you get them established they require as much or as little time as you have to give to them.

 

[ChanellG]

I don't know the name of my roses either. They are a miniature variety I received for Valentines Day. I almost lost them because I had hurt my back and my Valentine wasn't looking after them for me. I set them outside and when I repotted, I discovered there were actually six plants in the one container. Two have perished, but the remaining four are thriving.

All I do is water them, give them coffee grinds occasionally, or watered down coffee, and spray them with the same banana peel spray I use on my other flowering plants. I also spray them with aspirin water, and I think I may have sprinkled the soil at least once with epsom salts.

 

[Becky]

We've got mostly standard roses in our garden - they need feeding and an annual prune, but other than that they are pretty easy! The only thing I'd be careful of is that if you need access to your bird bath then don't pick anything too bushy as you might get scratched by the thorns!

 

[ChanellG]

We've got mostly standard roses in our garden - they need feeding and an annual prune, but other than that they are pretty easy! The only thing I'd be careful of is that if you need access to your bird bath then don't pick anything too bushy as you might get scratched by the thorns!

That's a good point; don't bird baths require periodic cleaning to keep them free of nasty bacteria? I would imagine you'd also want to clean it periodically to keep down the growth of algae. I debate about things like bird baths because I don't want to encourage the birds to discover my edibles.