Roses
The answer to the question of “Why grow roses?”, is their perfume, their long period of flowering and their versatility.
Perfume: No other plant has such a range of perfumes. For example, a rose that smells like apricots; some resemble cinnamon, while red roses traditionally have a strong perfume. Note: Modern roses are bred to withstand handling and to last longer in the vase. So, with stiff stems and stiff petals the perfume has been lost, as the perfume is in the petals!
Colour: There are 150 recognised ‘species’ of roses. Originally, all European roses were pink, fading to white. Hybridization began in the 17th Century, leading to the ‘modern rose’. If you took a rosehip from a specie rose, each seed would produce a rose true to the parent, but with a modern rose, one rosehip from say a red rose, would produce many variations in colour. Recent research has made it possible to work out the DNA of a rose! Breeders are still working on a blue rose.
Carpet Roses: The history of the carpet rose started with a promoter buying the rights to a ‘harsh, disease-resistant thorny rose, with a small pink flower, blooming constantly’ for $3million. The promoter than spent another $3million annually promoting it.
The Peace Rose: Unfortunately, it is now difficult to find a good ‘Peace’ rose bush. This rose was exploited because it was so popular and so good. Greedy growers propagated from all of the buds instead of the middle buds. The resultant bushes are not as good as the originals.
Marketing: The Rose Societies are partly to blame for the bad reputation for which rose growing has recently suffered. They have promoted the growing of exhibition blooms by a very small minority of enthusiasts (for example, only 2 of the 103 members of the Illawarra Rose Society, only grow roses). Now the Rose Society promotes roses not just for ‘judging’ but also for ‘interest’.
Versatility: Roses have great colours and a variety of shapes. You can get a rose at any time of the year. In our climate there is no real dormant period, so many roses are pruned when they are still blooming. ‘Old Garden Roses’ include China (little green flowers), Damask Moss, Noisette (climbers with large clusters of flowers) Provence and Tea roses. Modern roses include the Hybrid Teas, which are very beautiful.
The David Austin roses have ‘heavy heads’ (lovely in bowls but hard to show in a specimen vase).
In the climbers, the rose ‘Scotch Burnett’ is native to the Hebrides and Siberia. This is a low-growing thorny rose with black hips that was planted in Scotland to ‘annoy’ the English armies!
Rugosa Alba has white flowers and red hips.
What to grow where: Roses can be grown as hedges and for ‘landscape’ foliage. Strong growers such as the Australian Rose, ‘Lorraine Lee’, can be grown at the back of flowerbeds. Underplant roses with bulbs and/or Parsley (a deterrent to bugs) to avoid the ‘bare’ look after winter pruning. Miniature roses should be grown in pots or in baskets. Use climbers to add dimension to a garden. Shrub roses are now ‘the go’ and are very popular.
Black Spot: You do not need to spray roses. They do get Black Spot, but it will survive if the plant is strong enough. When pruned, remove all the leaves from the bush. Put Lime-sulphate around the base of the bush to kill off the spores in the ground.
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