The Easy Way To Grow Roses

July 1, 2011 - PRLog -- There’s good news if you find growing roses a challenge. That’s because there are many new easy-care roses on the market.

Until recently, many gardeners saw roses as too frustrating or time consuming for average people. Further, the amount of fungicides and insecticides required were not ecologically or economically friendly.

Fortunately, advances in rose breeding have changed all this, making roses something any gardener can enjoy. Often called shrub or landscape roses, these are bred for resistance to the many rose problems, including black spot and other diseases.

Low-Maintenance Roses For Everyone

These landscape shrub roses were a small percentage of the rose market in the 1990s, but today are exploding in popularity. The reason? These new shrub roses don’t require spraying, harsh chemicals, pruning or lots of water. They are also tough as nails, surviving the hottest summers and harshest winters.

A Real Home Run

Home Run rose, sold by Proven Winners, is hardy and compact. It blooms and reblooms from the first blush of spring until the first frost. Plus, it’s “self-cleaning,” eliminating the need to remove the dead or spent flowers. It is also the only rose of its kind with natural immunity to both black spot and powdery mildew.

Home Run roses bloom nearly continuously with showy three-inch-wide, five-petal flowers of true “fire engine” red. It is the first to flower in spring and produce fresh flowers every day through the season. It is heat tolerant and hardy in colder temperatures, so it can thrive from Texas to Michigan.

A brand-new rose called Pink Home Run is identical in every way to Home Run rose except its showy blossoms are an intense shade of pink.

Easy Does It

The Oso Easy series from Proven Winners is known for its disease resistance. These roses also don’t require any spraying or pruning. Each rose in the series has green glossy foliage complementing the bright flower color.

Oso Easy Peachy Cream only reaches about 12 to 36 inches in height so it fits into gardens large and small. Its flower color emerges peach and transforms to cream. Oso Easy Paprika Rose starts out as a beautiful orange and fades to coral with a golden sun in the center. Measuring only 12 to 24 inches in size, it is ideal for your home’s landscaping.

Another rose, Oso Easy Fragrant Spreader, has abundant soft pink, single flowers. The plant will spread out to almost five feet across, making it ideal for covering large areas. It is perfect to cover banks and slopes. Unlike many shrub roses, it is also highly fragrant.

Another newer rose is Oso Happy Candy Oh! It features large sprays of single, candy-apple red flowers blooming from summer until frost. It has a dense, mounding habit and is great for mass plantings. As with all these roses, it is very hardy and disease resistant. And because Candy Oh! was bred in Minnesota, it can take the harshest of winters.

Enjoyment All Summer

Shrub roses are easy to grow and are low maintenance. They are also ecologically—and pocketbook—friendly because they don’t require spraying. They work for mixed borders and beds and are compact enough to plant near walkways and other tight spots.

Roses need five to six hours of direct sun each day, so make sure you don’t plant in full shade. Avoid planting your roses beneath eaves or gutters so they are not damaged by falling water. These shrub roses don’t require heavy pruning, but you can prune to your preferred shape in spring.