Choosing Roses

The rose is a favorite garden flower and has been for decades. They have many uses other than just in flower beds as they are great for cutting and adding to bouquets and keeping in vases.

Of course, the favored use for roses is in outside the home. And in fact, the exterior of any home can be made more graceful and more inviting through the use of wonderful landscape roses. Choosing the right ones, and ensuring that they compliment the overall style of the home, is very important to the overall success of the landscape.

Fortunately, the number of ornamental landscape roses make finding them an easy task. The difficulty consists of choosing the right ones from this variety. There are a number of classes of roses whose characteristics make them great for use as landscape ornamentals. For instance, the gardener who wants to grow roses up and over an archway or a trellis may want to use tall growing tea roses. Tea roses are renowned for their nodding blooms, therefore all who pass under the arch would be treated to the beautiful sight of roses in full bloom.

Roses are commonly seen climbing a wall or an arbor. For this type of landscape, the true climbing rose is the best choice. True climbing roses can be trained to many different effects, including climbing up the length of the structure, or accenting the tops and sides of a wall or building.

The Polyantha or modern day Floribunda rose is a great choice for gardeners looking for a vibrant splash of color for the background. These popular varieties of roses have large sprays of blooms, and they are popular choices for providing color in the landscape.

Some rose bushes are rather large and should be planted at the back of your garden, but there are miniature or low growing China roses that are perfect to plant in front of other plants. Roses can even be used as hedges, with modern Shrub roses and Rugosa roses being excellent choices.

Of course, as with any aspect of gardening, color is an important consideration. After all, every gardener’s goal is a garden full of colorful, vibrant and healthy plants. Fortunately, roses come in so many shapes, sizes, textures and colors that there truly is a rose for every gardener.

The goal of choosing the best color roses for the landscape should be to compliment the color of the surrounding landscape. For instance, a spray of plain white tea roses can be striking against a dark red brick home, or an arrangement of pink roses can be the perfect compliment to a stone or marble entranceway. With so many colors of roses to choose from, it should be easy to find colors that compliment and enhance any decorating scheme.

One popular trend in the world of landscaping is to use a variety of different plants and flowers in the landscape. Whereas single species landscaping was in vogue a few years ago, most of today’s gardeners like to use a mix of different colors, species and styles of plants. Doing so not only makes for a vibrant garden, but it is thought to enhance the health of the soil as well.

Fortunately, roses lend themselves well to this mixture, and roses can be a beautiful part of an overall landscape of plants and flowers. In addition, there are roses suitable for a variety of climates. Choosing the best rose varieties for your specific climate should mean fewer pesticides, few disease issues and an overall healthier garden.

Planting Perennials
Perennials are a mainstay of many gardens and can be enjoyed for many seasons without replanting. In addition to their longevity they also present the gardener with many choices in coloration as well as size and shape.

Choosing And Planting Bulbs
Bulbs are great to plant in your garden and have the added benefit of blooming again and again for many years. Although many beginner gardeners are a bit put off about planting them, they are actually quite easy to plant and very hardy too.

Popular Bulbs
Read about some popular bulbs and their planting requirements.

Fungicides
Relaxing and rewarding, there is nothing like planting flowers and watching them thrive under your green thumb. But this soothing hobby can become stressful if your garden becomes infected with disease or pests. You can minimize the damage and your stress with a keen eye and proper use of commercial fungicides.

Dividing Bulbs Properly
Bulbs come in different types and therefore the methods of dividing them differ. There are 5 types of bulbs corms, tubers, true bulbs, rhizomes, and tuberous roots. If you plan to divide your bulbs, you need to identify which type you have so that you can divide them properly.

Caring For Your Annuals
With so many different annuals on the market, their ability to resist common plant diseases and insect infestations can vary quite a bit. While some types of annuals are virtually impervious to disease and insects, others require much more care to remain trouble free. Here's some tips on keeping your annuals healthy