Purchasing Roses to Plant in Your Garden

Roses have been around a very long time; in fact, there is evidence left by a rose fossil that they have been around for about 35 million years. They have symbolized many things during this time: love, war, and even politics. Roses grow just about everywhere on the globe where it gets warm enough to allow them to develop. Written history shows that they were cultivated in China 5000 years ago and were used for medicinal reasons as well as for perfumes and just because they are so beautiful. In Rome they had large formal public rose gardens. In England a white rose symbolized York and the red rose symbolized Lancaster in the ‚”War of the Roses”. Rosewater was developed to mask the nasty smells of the streets in the 17th century and Josephine, of Napoleon fame, collected them.

Propagation

Commercial roses are propagated in two different ways. One way is to take a bud (not a flower but a budding stem) from a rose and graft it onto what is called rootstock. Rootstock are common roses that have the ability to produce really good root systems. Some of the types used as rootstock are Rosa multiflora, Rosa canna, or Rosa laxa. The bud is joined by cutting and taping and the joint where it usually becomes very swollen and is called a bud union or nub. The canes or stems that will grow come from this area. Sometimes these types of roses will send up sucker stems that will develop into a totally different rose that what it is supposed to be after one season.

The other way is by softwood cuttings. These roses are called own-root roses. Maybe your mother took a cutting from a friend’s rose then put it in the ground with a glass jar over it. A nursery has a better way of doing this, but it is similar to the jar method. Old fashioned garden roses come this way. While grafted roses tend to produce suckers that may or may not be the same rose as what was planted, own-root roses never have that problem. There is no graft to deal with. Own-root roses live longer. Even if a heavy winter kills the rose to the ground it will still have a chance at coming back as the same type of rose. Own-root roses take a little longer to develop but once they do, they will be around for years and years.

Grades

Today there are so many varieties it would be hard to describe them in just one article. There are tea roses, shrub roses, climbers, miniature roses, and on, and on. All roses, however come in grades. These grades tell the gardener how big the plant will be, how old it is, and how valuable the plant is.

Grade 1 plants have 3 or more canes (stems) that are around ® inch in diameter and have no more than 3 to 4 inches between the spot where it was grafted and the top of the roots. Most roses today are made by grafting an old style rose, or attaching a piece of one rose to another. Grade 1 plants are 2 years old when taken from where they are growing to be sold and they are usually the more expensive of the grades.

The next grade is 1-1/2. These plants have 2 canes, and will have good value as they have a good chance of catching up to the growth of a grade 1 during a season or two.

The grade 2 plants are the inexpensive roses found in the bargain section of the nursery. They usually have small canes and need to be nursed along for several years and may never catch up to the quality of the grade 1 plants. It’s probably a good idea to stay away from grade 2 roses if you haven’t got a big green thumb.

Purchasing plants

One can purchase roses from the local nursery, from catalogs, and can even be found in the local discount store during the spring. The will either come in containers planted in soil or what is called bare root.

When you are purchasing a bare root plant it will come to you usually wrapped in paper, plastic, or wood shavings may be placed about the roots. The canes sometimes come covered in wax to keep them from drying out. Don’t worry about the wax, it will just crack off as the rose grows. Bare root canes should be green and smooth and should feel a little heavy since it is still filled with water. If the canes are brittle and it seems light, it has dried out and should be returned to the seller as it will not grow. Bare root plants won’t usually be sent to you until it is time to plant them and you certainly shouldn’t purchase them locally until it is time to plant. They can be kept up to 2 weeks at a temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but no longer than that. Usually you soak the bare root rose in water prior to planting but they should come with instructions. Follow them for best results.

Roses purchased in containers usually start out as bare root plants and the nursery places them in pots with soil. A rose sold a s a ‚”Potted Plant” has usually been growing in the container a little longer than a ‚”Containerized plant”. It will have a better, more established root system.

Bare root roses should only be planted in the spring but a containerized rose can be planted anytime during warm weather.

Roses are one of the most popular flowers to grow in a yard garden. You don’t have to be an expert but you have to be ready for the work it takes to keep your roses beautiful. It may be hard work but it is worth it in the end.