Low Maintenance Roses
These Easy to Grow Roses are Colorful and Long Blooming
Many gardeners shy away from planting roses due to their high maintenance nature - read on.
If any plant has a bad reputation - it’s the rose. While beautiful in bloom, many often shy away from this plant because of the pruning, insects, and its bare winter form. Many landscape designers are often coming to the defense of the this Jekyll and Hyde of the plant world.
While the hybrid teas are the roses mainly offered by nurseries, they are known for their high maintenance nature and hence the bad reputation. To be at their best, they should be groomed during the blooming season, often succumb to insect attack, (need chemical control- spray or systemic application) and need to be pruned in a specific manner during the dormant season.
Another negative of the hybrid tea is their bare winter form. It is preferable to spot this type of rose throughout the landscape, or place a rose garden in a spot where its “Bone Yard Nature” does not command prime attention in the winter garden.
If you have shied away from roses because of the aforementioned details - put your fears to rest. Take a look at theButterfly Roses, sporting single flowers that change color as the flower matures.
A favorite is the Mutabilis or Chinese Butterfly Rose. At any time you’ll have creamy yellow, pink, and mauve colored flowers on one plant. This is a large plant, growing to approximately 12 feet wide and 8 feet tall. This is a screening plant for the large property, blooms all season, and is nearly evergreen in the winter - a rare trait for a rose, indeed
Other Butterfly roses to look for are Flutterbyand Tequila Sunrise. Flutterby has overlapping yellow and peachy - orange flowers and grows to about 7 feet tall by 5 feet wide. Tequila Sunrise is a blend of red, peach , white and orange.
Note that all Butterfly Roses have single type flowers and are self cleaning. This means that when the flower is spent, they simply fall from the plant, and disappear - no cleanup neededThese roses can grow for years without any pruning whatsoever. However, because of the wide spreading nature of the Mutabilis variety, edging may be necessary to control its wide spreading nature - so spot it carefully. Other than that a hard pruning once every 5 to 8 years is all they'll need.
Look for roses grown on their own roots. This way you avoid root suckers which produce inferior flowers which are unlike the desirable rose you purchased.
