Roses are Red
Let’s imagine that you have a fondness for red roses and would like to grow some of your own. Here’s a guide to help you determine which crimson beauty may be right for you.
MINIATURE:
If you’re living in an apartment or condominium, you may not have a yard or garden that you can call your own, but if you have a window sill or a growing light, you can raise miniature roses. They can also be grown successfully in pots on a patio or balcony, or in the ground if you have only a small planting area along a walkway. These compact plants, some with blossoms as tiny as your thumbnail, come in as wonderful an array of colors as their full-sized relatives. One of the first miniatures to be developed is still one of the most highly rated, a lovely red rose named “Starina.”
SHRUB or LANDSCAPE ROSE:
If you have a yard and would like to have roses, but you aren’t ‘into’ gardening, then a shrub rose or landscape rose may be perfect for you. These sturdy bushes can be grown as a hedge along the boundary line of a yard, and they are bred to be extremely disease- and insect-resistant. The form of each individual blossom is relatively simple, often without a large number of petals, but the blossoms are so numerous that the over-all effect is pleasing and picturesque. A popular clove-scented shrub rose in shades of burgundy, cherry-red and cream is “Cherries ‘n Cream.”
FLORIBUNDA:
If you want to enjoy armloads of colorful blooms, floribunda rose bushes were designed with you in mind. Floribunda roses come on compact bushes (roughly knee-high) and are characterized by generous sprays of blossoms, sometimes as many as nine blossoms per stem. Although the blossoms are smaller and less formal in shape than those of a hybrid tea rose, they are attractive and can be cut for use in bouquets. The bushes are more prone to damage from insects or disease than shrub roses, but are still extremely hardy. A long-time favorite red floribunda, known for being a prolific bloomer that is hardy and quite disease- and insect-resistant, is “Europeana.”
HYBRID TEA:
If you have admired large, elegant, high-centered rose blossoms in a formal bouquet or corsage, what you saw were the blooms from a hybrid tea rose. These blossoms sometimes come singly on a stem, or in clusters of two or three, and a fully opened individual blossom may be as large as the palm of your hand. Many also exude a pleasant fragrance that may range from subtle to strong. The canes of a healthy hybrid tea rose bush may grow to be waist-high. A popular red hybrid tea rose with beautiful. High-centered blossoms and a heady perfume is “Fragrant Cloud.”
HEIRLOOM
If you remember making tissue-roses as a child, you will find that same frilly, many-petaled appearance in many varieties of heirloom roses. Some classes of heirloom roses date back hundreds of years. Double blossoms of deep royal red can be found on the highly disease-resistant bush, “Braveheart.”
TREE ROSES”
If you’d like to adopt a fresh approach to adding roses to your yard, consider planting one or more tree roses. They’re great for lining a walkway, providing a spot of interest to lead the eye upward in your garden, or to take pride of place in the middle of your yard. One vigorous red tree rose with an abundance of blossoms is “Glad Tidings.”
GRANDIFLORA:
If you are looking for a rose bush that can be planted in the back of a planting bed and still make its presence felt, then a grandiflora rose may be just the bush for you. This style of rose enjoys the same characteristics as a hybrid tea rose bush, but it grows much taller, sometimes head-high or more. A prize-winning scarlet grandiflora rose whose petals sport a distinctive silvery-white reverse is “Love.”
CLIMBER:
If you have a fence or wall that would be more attractive if it were covered in foliage and blooms, then you may want to consider planting a climbing rose. Climbers can easily grow to a height of ten feet or more, with the help of a trellis or netting to which their canes can be attached. A fragrant and vigorous red climber sure to please is the crimson beauty called “Don Juan.”
So there you have it: red roses for every planting situation. Try them on for size and your enjoyment of your garden is sure to grow.
