Here are some articles about roses, selecting them, growing them, and enjoying them in the garden. Enjoy:
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My wife reminds me that when she met me she thought there were four kinds of roses: red, white, yellow, and pink. And the place to get them is the florist. But sometimes a rose is something else. I discovered roses by accident; I kept putting plants in the ground and the rose was the first plant to take. Lots of other plants died, but the roses thrived. Fortunately I was planting old survivors that just happened to be well suited for the Texas environment : Old Blush and Fortunes Double.
Before one reads my essays there are a few things to keep in mind. I:
If you are a good gardener and you love to coddle roses, some of my observations will seem far off the mark. If you grow roses for exhibition, my focus on the garden will seem even more far afield.
When it comes to rose care, I know from moving three New Dawn roses from one spot on my NJ property to another that local soil and climate vary greatly from spot to spot. They did great in the first spot, but have barely gotten started - after three years - in the second. My opinion is just an opinion. I've planted something more than a hundred cultivars, failed with about half, and am very pleased with what's left. I suppose that makes me a rose lover.
I hope that this site will inspire others to give rose gardening a try. The rose has plenty of specialist friends, but I believe it deserves a lot more attention as a garden and landscape plant. I encourage other people who are not rose specialists to garden with them. And to do it on their own terms.