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A New Look at Roses
by Stephen Scanniello
Have you ever tried to grow a rose, only to watch it languish from disease or insect infestation, and eventually die?
The photos in catalogs, books and nursery advertisements are picture-perfect. But when you bring the roses home to your garden, the trouble begins.
This complaint is heard from gardeners across the country. Somehow, that spectacular hybrid tea from the mail-order catalog just doesn't live up to its promise when it's actually growing in your mountaintop garden. And after all is said and done, you'll probably need to go out next spring and buy new plants, since they never seem to survive your winters.
On the other hand, if you're a gardener in the deep South, you may wonder why your roses quickly become a living textbook of rose problems, despite the milder winters.
'Maman Cochet' Photo © Stephen Scanniello
Traditionally, roses have been coddled, treated as the fussiest of garden plants. When I first started growing roses, spraying for insects and diseases was a regular part of the routine. In the last ten years, however, there has been a strong movement away from this school of thought. Thanks to the efforts of plant preservation groups such as the Heritage Rose Foundation, the general public is becoming increasingly aware of entire classes of roses that are easier to grow and don't require a constant onslaught of harsh chemicals to fend off insects and diseases.
Are there roses that can survive without spraying? Any that can withstand the cold winters of zone 3? That thrive where there isn't a cold winter dormant period? Can you grow roses in containers? Can you grow your grandmother's roses from cuttings? An answer to each of these questions can be found in the following pages. And, by the way, the answer is yes.
A new generation of rosarians from all over the country has contributed to this book. Gardeners from large public gardens, nursery professionals, hybridizers and homeowners all offer their personal insights on growing roses—from practical tips on pruning roses and landscaping with roses to a detailed section on chemical-free rose care.
'Mrs. Herbert Stevens'
Photo © Stephen Scanniello
Even if you follow all the recommended horticultural techniques, you may have problems if you choose the wrong rose for your garden. There is a rose for every garden. But not every rose is ideal for every garden. In this volume, rosarians from diverse climates— from southern Texas to the mountaintops of Vermont—recommend their favorite and easiest-to-grow roses. From miniature roses to vigorous climbers, old roses and some of the newest cultivars are recommended for each region.
You'll also learn how to search for roses in cemeteries, old homesteads, even long-forgotten gardens of the inner city—roses that have flourished for decades without any human care at all—and how to propagate these sturdy old rose varieties from cuttings. Finally, you'll get a glimpse of new trends that will shape the future of roses, both here and abroad, for years to come.
All of this was put together with a single object in mind—to enable you to successfully grow beautiful roses that do not need to be sprayed, primped or pampered to survive.
Stephen Scanniello is a world-renowned rosarian and curator of the Cranford Rose Garden in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. He is co-author of Roses of America and Climbing Roses, and served as consultant and contributing author on several other horticultural books, among them the upcoming new edition of the Bush-Brown America's Garden Book and the recently released American Horticulture Society Encyclopedia of Gardening. He is chairperson for the Heritage Rose Foundation.