Summer Roses

Photographs of Our Garden

While there is room in our garden for many different plants, there always seems to be more room for roses. Given the realities of a humid climate with cold winters, we grow mostly hardy, disease resistant roses. Many of these bloom only once, in June, but when they do bloom the show is a fabulous orgy of sights and smells. Others present flowers throughout the season, but even these give their best in June.

The first roses to bloom are the early spinossisimas. They can start here before Memorial Day. This rose is probably an old hybrid named Mrs. Colville. To the right is an unknown euphorbia, and to the left is a McKana hybrid columbine. If I keep them deadheaded the columbines have an astonishingly long bloom season, lasting from May well into July. I often give up before they do.

Spinossismas are thorny, thicket forming roses with masses of small leaves. From a distance they look distinctly ferny. Many of the hybrids originated in Scotland, giving them the name Scotch roses. They are healthy, hardy plants that can be hard to find because their only show is early in the season. In a fairly large garden like ours, they earn their keep between being early and providing excellent background foliage for later perennials. Many also set masses of colorful hips in the fall, as well as having good fall foliage. I canžt speak about the hips from personal experience, though, because they are a favorite wildlife food, particularly of squirrels.

To me this is what the old roses are all about. A luscious mass of flowers and scent. This bed has the Apothecary Rose on the left and Gloire de Guilan in the middle, with Captain Samuel Holland in the background. The Apothecary Rose is also known as Rosa Gallica officianalis. It was widely used as a herbal remedy in medieval times, and still figures prominently in many herb gardens. It is a good hip setter, and the hips stay around. Gloire de Guilan is an old damask that was introduced to the west by Miss Nancy Lindsay in the 1920s. Very fragrant, it has been used as a source of attar of roses. Captain Samuel Holland is an Explorer Rose from Agriculture Canada. It is the only one of this group that will rebloom. The roses are underplanted with creeping thyme.

This group contains a couple of good rebloomers. The blush pink rose on the far left is the Austin rose Heritage. In the bottom foreground the bright red rose is the polyantha Mme. Norbert Levavaseur. Polyanthas are quite good roses for our region. They give a great deal of color on hardy bushes. Their major disadvantage is a notorious lack of scent. Behind and to the right of the polyantha are two gallicas, Jenny by Duval and Rosa Mundi. Jenny by Duval is the rose directly behind Mme. Norbert Levavaseur. Rosa Mundi is off to the right. Nestled in between Heritage and Jenny by Duval is a bloodroot geranium. Hardy geraniums, or cranesbills, are quite nice little plants, well suited to interplanting in rose gardens.

A great deal has been written about companion plantings for roses. Obviously I approve of them, at least for hardy roses. Companion plantings for hybrid teas involve a lot more factors, one of which is how well the plants like to be buried. Life is much simpler with roses that do not require that kind of fussing. Just about any plants that are not extremely aggressive work well with roses. I am very fond of cranesbills and lilies. Beardless iris also work very well.

Any comments, questions, suggestions? Contact: Kay Cangemi
This page was last updated on: March 9, 1999