Written by Michelle Smith, Portage County Master Gardener Volunteers
Roses have a reputation of being a hard-to-grow plant. Depending on the variety of rose, that can certainly be true. But it doesn’t have to be the case.
For many years, the hybrid tea rose dominated the garden industry. These are the plants that most people picture when they think of a “rose” - upright plants, with a classic bud on a long stem. They look gorgeous in the catalogs, but they often perform poorly in home gardens. They may be susceptible to a variety of diseases, and typically require winter protection in our area.
This last point is particularly important. Have you ever purchased a rose from a catalog, gotten gorgeous blooms the first year, and then found that in a later season the booms were now… different? As if your carefully chosen rose was replaced over the winter with an imposter? The reason that you are seeing a “different rose” is that many roses, especially hybrid teas, are grafted plants. The rose that you bought is the top of the plant, and the bottom of the plant (known as the rootstock) is from an entirely different, generally more hardy plant. When things work as planned, you get the beautiful plant that you expected, and the hormones from that portion of the plant suppress the growth of the rootstock plant. But when the top of the plant is killed, as often happens in a cold Ohio winter, what grows back in future years is the rose used for the rootstock. And, unfortunately, the roses that are chosen for their hardy roots are generally not as attractive as the one you’d planned to grow.
This, among other problems, often leads gardeners to throw up their hands in despair and to stop growing roses entirely. Fortunately, there is another option – find the right rose for your space!
Peter Schneider, author of the book "Right Rose, Right Place," has the following suggestions for gardeners looking for a beautiful rose that will perform well in their garden year after year:
“More and more own-root roses are now being offered in garden centers, in addition to the traditional bud-grafted ones. In Portage County, grafted roses must be planted with the graft at or just below the soil surface. Otherwise they will die. Own-root roses can never revert to an understock but can take 2-3 years to catch up to grafted roses in initial growth.
The best, most disease-resistant, winter-hardy roses being bred today come from Kordes in Germany. These are sometimes marketed in pots that say "Kordes". Other times they can be identified by the "KOR" prefix to a codename in the small print on their marketing tag.
A local independent garden center is far more likely to have roses suited to Portage County than a big box store where roses are chosen by someone sitting at a desk in Charlotte, Atlanta or Arkansas.
If you want a rose that is absolutely never going to die in a Portage County winter, choose a gallica. If you want a rose that is absolutely never going to die in winter and also repeat blooms, choose a hybrid rugosa. If you want a rose that can grow in soggy soil or even a swamp, choose our native R. palustris.
It is much easier to choose a rose that you know will do well for your conditions--because you have seen it growing in a local garden. or trust its breeder--than to come home with a random rose from a discount or farm store and try to make it succeed.”
As it happens, Peter is not only an international expert on roses. He has also been a resident of Portage County for many years, where he and his wife Susan grow over 1300 varieties of roses.
They open up their gardens, Freedom Gardens (6193 Vair Road, Freedom Township) to the public every year during their annual Open Garden Days on Sundays in June (7, 14, 21 and 28, from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.). Many of their roses are rare varieties not seen outside of California and Europe – and all are grown without winter protection.
If you’d like to see what is possible in your own Portage County garden, this is a great opportunity. For more information on Freedom Gardens and Open Garden Days, visit Freedom Gardens' 28th Annual Open Gardens.
And if you want to learn more about growing roses, Purdue University has developed the following overview: Roses Purdue University. You can also find information from the American Rose Society, as well as the University of Missouri Roses: Selecting and Planting and Illinois Extension Planting Roses.
Don’t get discouraged – by choosing the right rose, and putting it in the right place, you can successfully grow these beautiful plants in your own garden!
Ohio State University Extension Portage County Master Gardener Volunteer program. As OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteers, our articles will never endorse specific products or companies. Questions/comments/suggestions/want to find out more/become a PCMGV: 330-296-6432 • OSU PCMGV web • portco.mgv.oh@gmail.com • FB PCMGV • PCMGV Speaker’s Bureau