Gardening with Allen: Not all roses earn finicky reputation

I would like to plant some roses in my yard, but I am new to gardening and I have been warned that they take a lot of skill and time to grow. Are there some rose varieties that an ordinary unskilled gardener can grow successfully?

Although our climate is well-adapted to roses, they have a reputation for being difficult to grow. Many of the varieties grown for cut flowers do take time and attention. However, there is a group of roses that I refer to as “landscape roses” that can be grown successfully by anyone. These are roses that can be grown just about anywhere in the sunny part of your garden where you would plant flowers or shrubs.

The biggest problem with the long stemmed hybrid tea roses is their susceptibility to leaf diseases which require repeated applications of fungicides. To look their best, the dead blossoms should be removed regularly.

In recent years, rose breeders have developed roses with strong resistance to rose diseases such as black spot, so no spraying is necessary. They have smaller flowers with shorter multi-branching stems that develop into a shorter 3 foot bush more quickly. When the smaller flowers lose their petals the new growth tends to cover them so little deadheading is needed.

One of the first groups of landscape varieties to gain attention were the Floral Carpet varieties developed in Australia. The Floral Carpet name is a little misleading since the often grow to 3 feet or higher.

Although still widely available, other American developed varieties are now becoming more popular. Two of the most commonly available in full service nurseries this time of year are the “Knockout” and “Easy-Elegance” varieties. Both groups have excellent disease resistance. I planted one of the Easy-Elegance varieties named Paint the Town 3 years ago. It has performed beautifully with minimum care.

Weeks Roses (weeksroses.com), one of the larger producers of roses, has lists of rose varieties for the Pacific Northwest. Included on this list are ground covers, shrublets, small shrubs, and medium shrubs.

To protect your other roses from leaf diseases such as mildew with Neem oil. This is a natural extract from the Neem tree which grows in Australia. Neem oil also kills most insects which attack roses.

Allen Wilson is a Vancouver gardening specialist. Email Allen Wilson at allenw98663@yahoo.com.