Rose

ROSA

MY INTEREST IN ROSES BEGAN MANY YEARS AGO IN MY PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER’S ROSE GARDEN IN NUTLEY, NEW JERSEY. BABCIA HELEN GREW HYBRID TEA ROSES IN A RICH BED THAT MEASURED ABOUT 10 FEET BY 40 FEET. SHE WAS VERY FRUGAL, AND RATHER THAN PURCHASE A ROSEBUSH OF A TYPE SHE ADMIRED, SHE LEARNED TO PROPAGATE ROSES FROM CUTTINGS.

Her method was simple—take cuttings, remove most of their leaves, and insert them, four or five in a circle, in her garden soil, under a large glass mayonnaise or pickle jar. Grandma’s roses were quite famous. For presents, she would give rooted plants to her three children, and we grandchildren coveted blooms to take to our teachers because we knew that her tea roses, especially those of the ‘Peace’ variety, were the largest and best in the neighborhood.

Grandma did not have rooting hormone to help her propagation process, but she certainly knew how to feed, water, and prune rosebushes. A barrel of manure “tea” stood right by the garden, and she never let the bushes get thirsty. The leaves were surprisingly disease-free; I don’t recall any signs of black spot or yellowing, but I do remember that soapy water, tobacco water, and coppery-green solutions were applied regularly. Japanese beetles didn’t stand a chance, with her nimble fingers plucking off offenders and dropping them into a jar of kerosene.

My father, too, grew almost everything from seeds or cuttings, and his vision was more expansive than Grandma’s. Dad dreamed and he studied, and he started me on my quest for different kinds of roses. He planted our front walk in Nutley with a border of ‘Tropicana’ roses. I always complained that I didn’t like their colors—oranges, yellows, and corals—but Dad thought that they, of all roses, would do the best there. He encouraged me to enter “our” roses in local flower shows, and, after several blue ribbons from the Nutley Women’s Club, I became a rose addict. When I moved to Westport, Connecticut, my husband and daughter gave me twelve wonderful tea rosebushes one Mother’s Day, and I was on my way to serious collecting. After the teas, I started to accumulate scores of old roses. I was attracted by their free-growing habits, their endless variety, their delectable perfume, and the ease with which they seemed to thrive. I visited Sissinghurst and Mottisfont Abbey in England, and Giverny in France, and I craved knowledge about the kinds of roses I saw there—shrub roses, centifolias, Bourbons, and hybrid perpetuals.

When I began my East Hampton garden, I knew much more about which roses I loved and those I could live without. I knew which roses bloomed only once and then turned into a huge green shrub, never to bloom again that year. Still, I couldn’t resist planting the apricot ‘Alchymist’ and the pink ‘Raubritter’, despite their ill-mannered once-flowering nature. In 2013, I transplanted the roses from East Hampton (more than 350 bushes!) to Katonah, and I am delighted by how well they survived the trip. Every single bush is thriving, and I look forward to another prodigious show this summer, and for many years to come. I do wish my father could see the progress I’ve made as a gardener. And I would be so happy if he could smell the wonderful profusion of roses on the farm. He would certainly be gratified that his early encouragement and teaching made me so willing—and successful—a student.

This abundant arrangement lets it all hang out: single, double, fully-double, and clustered form roses mix with ‘Ballerina’, spilling over the edges of a nineteenth-century American pressed-glass footed bowl. (A compote, sugar bowl, and pair of eggcups placed alongside complete the display.) In a wide-mouthed vessel like this one, use a floral frog secured in place with floral gum. A tape grid (see this page) is also effective for making fewer flowers look abundant. Here, the many shades of pink and the myriad textures create a sense of movement. Kevin positioned the larger roses first, then worked his way down in size to the smallest.

Morning dew collects on the blossoms of ‘Excellenz von Shubert’, a double-flowered rose. The double varieties often display various shades of color as they open from tight bulbs to full-blown flowers. In general, the more petals a rose has, the more perfumed it is.

GROWING & ARRANGING

A ROSE IS A ROSE, OF COURSE, BUT THE FLOWERS COME IN SO MANY COLORS, TYPES, SHAPES, SCENTS, AND FORMS THAT EVERY GARDENER IS BOUND TO FIND A VARIETY WELL SUITED TO HIS OR HER PARTICULAR SITE, CLIMATE, AND GARDEN. AND THE POSSIBILITIES FOR ARRANGING ARE NEARLY AS LIMITLESS.

I have a large variety of roses growing in Katonah, including vigorous climbing roses, which are exceptionally versatile. The extra length and pliability of their canes make them a dramatic covering for rock walls and fences, and they furnish living architecture when trained on trellises and arbors. Here, a massive bank of rambling roses has taken over the back fence between the chicken coop and the pumpkin patch.

This view of the porch at my home on Lily Pond Lane, in East Hampton, shows some of the many antique roses I planted there. Of the several hun
dred varieties I chose, most were Old Garden roses, and the rest had the look, if not the pedigree. They bloomed in waves from May to late October, many climbing over trellises and porches, as in an English country garden. In 2013, I transplanted the shrub roses (many of them more than two decades old and weakened) to Katonah, where they were brought back to vigor and beauty.

HOW TO GROW

Roses can be single- or double-flowered, pale or dark, and grown on dense bushes or airy vines. The roses at Skylands begin their season in early spring, when the gardeners and I remove the burlap enclosures they had placed around each bed at the start of winter (see Overwintering, this page; it’s milder in Katonah, so the roses there don’t require the burlap). The profusion of blooms each summer is well worth that extra step.

ZONE Roses are best grown in Zones 4 to 10, depending on the variety. They are regional plants, and each class or species prefers a certain climate. For example, Gallica roses, part of a class perfected in nineteenth-century France, have proven both winter hardy and disease-resistant in my New York gardens (and in my Connecticut garden years ago). In the Southeast, however, Gallica is a poor choice; you’ll find better results with tea, China, or hybrid musk roses. Along the Pacific coast, hybrid tea and Floribunda roses thrive—and still others, such as Alba roses, can perform as well in the cold Maine air as in the heat of Los Angeles.

SOIL Roses flourish in sites with well-drained soil that is loaded with organic material. If your soil is sandy or full of clay, add compost and manure and mix well. This produces a medium that drains efficiently but also holds enough moisture for the plants to drink. Mulch also makes growing roses easier, as it helps the soil stay cool and moist during hot weather, cutting down on the need to water. It also inhibits many common weeds, and, when made from organic matter such as bark, grass clippings, manure, straw, or leaves, should break down over time and improve the quality of your soil.

LIGHT Plant roses where they can get at least six hours of direct sun every day. If they can get eight to ten hours, that’s ideal, as it will promote better blooming. Dark-red and black roses, though, can stand a bit of afternoon shade so they don’t burn. Climbing roses will do some of the work on their own; to clamber upward and reach sunlight, they take advantage of their thorns’ natural propensity to hook onto anything nearby. Lend your climbers a hand by adding a trellis or other structure that they can grab on to.

CHOOSING Rose plants can be purchased either in pots or in bare-root, dormant form. Both are good as long as they’re from reputable growers; if you’re new to roses, try both and see which you prefer. Mail-order plants are almost always sold bare-root, which offers a wider variety, especially many older rose varieties that are only available through specialty nurseries. Look for bare-root plants that feel heavy (a lightweight root means it is dried out) and that have thicker, smooth canes (stems). They should be brownish-green, not tan-colored; avoid those coated in wax.

PLANTING To plant a bare-root rose, dig a hole approximately 18 inches wide and 18 inches deep and form a conical mound at the bottom of the hole. Ensure the mound is the right height by positioning the root on the soil so the bud union sits on top and the roots extend down over the mound. In warmer climates, the bud union should be at or just above ground level. In colder places, it should be 1 inch to 2 inches below ground level. Once you’ve determined the correct height of the mound, remove the root, add some rose food (follow package instructions), and replace. Fill the hole with soil, making sure there are no air spaces among the roots, and water thoroughly. For a first planting, mound soil around the planting and create a moat around the bush. Water again, thoroughly. The moat will help prevent water from running off and ensure it reaches the roots.

WATERING Most roses grow best if they get about an inch of water each week during the growing season, depending on soil type. Gardeners with sandy soil often find their roses need a little more water than those with soil high in clay. To gauge your sprinkler’s effectiveness, set out empty cans to time how long it takes an inch of water to collect.

Always water in the morning so that the plants can dry before nightfall, which will help ward off fungal diseases that can result from damp foliage. With that in mind, never water plants from above. For a large rose garden or in places where water is scarce, soaker hoses, which slowly seep water directly at ground level, or drip irrigation systems are the best watering tools. Because they release water a drop at a time, they’re less likely to create runoff, and they apply water directly to the soil, which makes them better for irrigating plants that are prone to foliar diseases (those affecting the leaves).

FERTILIZING After the burlap is removed from my Skylands rosebushes and the crowns are uncovered each spring, I form a saucer, or well, of the compost around each bush to facilitate watering. Depending on its size and age, we give each plant a half to one cup of Epsom salts and one cup of Rose-tone, a packaged fertilizer high in organic ingredients. Every two weeks during the bud and blooming stages, they are fed with liquid seaweed and fish emulsion (available at garden supply stores). The soil is rejuvenated with a couple of inches of compost in spring and fall. In the fall in Katonah, and again each March, I sprinkle a half to one cup of Epsom salts around each plant, and allow the rain (or snow!) to melt it into the soil. I also like to spread coffee grounds around the base of the rosebushes throughout the year, especially in the spring to promote abundant growth. (I collect them from the Martha Stewart Café in the lobby of my office building.) As a general rule, I don’t use fungicide or pesticide sprays preventively—only if problems occur.

PRUNING In springtime, remove the three Ds (anything dead, damaged, or diseased), and remember that pruning isn’t just for “pruning season.” Feel free to shape your roses all season long, as you would any other plant in your garden—while you are deadheading is a great time (see below). To protect your hands and arms from thorns, wear leather gloves and a heavy, long-sleeved shirt. Disinfect pruners between cuts (on different plants) by dipping the blades in a mixture of one part household bleach to ten parts water. This prevents disease from spreading from plant to plant. As a rule of thumb, don’t reduce the height of most garden roses by more than a third. For spring- and summer-flowering varieties, do not prune again until after they have bloomed. Leave at least three or four strong, outward-growing canes (stems) on each plant. For climbing roses, cut back their horizontal side branches by half after flowering.

Deadheading is the process by which spent or fading flowers are cut from their stems. It is done for aesthetic purposes—to eliminate unsightly dead blooms from the garden—as well as for practical ones. By removing a spent flower, you are also removing the plant’s immature seeds, thereby saving the plant from focusing its energy on seed production. A deadheaded rosebush will concentrate its energies on food production and storage, and, in some cases, on the production of another round of blooms. If your roses are the type that bloom only once in a season, such as Damasks, deadheading cleans up the look of the bush; if you have repeat-bloomers such as rugosas or hybrid teas, deadheading will help the plants to continue producing abundant flowers. When you’re ready to remove a flower, make your cut just above the first cluster of five leaflets on the stem below the bloom—any higher and you run the risk of hurting the next round of blooms. Use only sharp, clean bypass pruners, which make precise cuts and allow the stem to heal properly, thereby reducing the risk of infection by bacteria and other plant pathogens.

As beneficial as deadheading can be, it is important to know when to stop. It is only by allowing flowers to remain on their stems at the end of the season that rose hips—the fruits of the rosebush that provide attractive winter color in the garden—have a chance to appear. If you live in a cool climate, it’s also a good idea to stop deadheading in the late summer and let the plant go dormant naturally. Pushing roses to continue blooming when the weather turns cool can be stressful for the plants, leaving them ill-equipped to withstand the winter’s chillier temperatures.

OVERWINTERING If you live in a northern region, you will probably need to protect your roses during the winter, which is essentially the process of making sure they stay frozen until spring. Rosebushes are frequently damaged by changes in temperature—one day the soil freezes, the next it thaws—which causes “heaving” of the soil. This pushes the plant’s roots to the surface, leaving them vulnerable to the cold and causing them to dry out. There are a few common methods to overwinter your roses; whichever one you choose, wait until the soil has frozen before beginning the process. The first is using mulch: Cover rose canes with 4 to 5 inches of loose mulch, such as weed-free straw, leaf mulch, pine needles, or wood chips.

Protect roses in extremely cold areas with rose cones, foam devices that resemble white traffic cones. Mound soil over the crown, and then cover the entire plant with the cone. Cut a few ventilation holes, and anchor it so it won’t blow away during winter storms.

Another method is growing roses in large containers and moving them to a sheltered spot for the winter—such as an unheated garage, storage shed, or cool basement.

At Skylands, which has rough Maine winters, we wrap burlap around the entire rose garden to protect the plants from the elements. After the plants are top-dressed in late autumn, wooden stakes are pounded into the soil about 5 feet apart, and lengths of 36-inch-wide burlap are stapled to the stakes. When the ground freezes, we spread salt hay in fluffy mounds atop the soil to prevent heaving and to provide extra insulation. The hay is secured with baling twine crisscrossed between bamboo stakes to keep it from blowing away. Come spring, the hay is removed and saved for next year’s service. Winters are milder in Katonah (Zone 5 to 6, depending on the year), so we don’t wrap the roses but simply add a few inches of compost to each plant to protect the crown.

Remember that the best defense against winter damage to your roses is a good offense. Make sure that your rosebushes are properly nourished throughout the growing season and that any parasites and diseases are controlled. This will help your plants keep their leaves, which will improve their chances of winter survival.

TROUBLESHOOTING Roses are commonly attacked by a number of fungal diseases, including black spot, powdery mildew, and rust. Black spot is caused by the fungus Diplocarpon rosae, which invades the vascular tissue of leaves, resulting in unsightly black areas. The leaves yellow and eventually drop; in time, the plants can become virtually defoliated. Light black spot at season’s end is almost inevitable, but not harmful—it is the extreme and untreated cases that can mortally weaken plants.

Affected roses can often be coaxed into recovery with nonchemical treatments. One do-it-yourself option is to spray every five to ten days with a mixture of four teaspoons baking soda and one tablespoon horticultural oil per gallon of water. Spray only in the early morning or after heavy rains, as the treatment has the potential to burn leaves if applied during the hottest part of the day. Another option is to treat with an antitranspirant, or antidesiccant—normally used to prevent plants from experiencing excessive water loss, they can form a barrier between leaf pores and invading black-spot fungi. And whole neem oil, a substance derived from the seeds of the tropical neem tree and available at nurseries and garden supply stores, also helps prevent and control black spot. Use two tablespoons of 90 percent whole neem oil per gallon of warm water, spraying according to directions.

Ultimately, preemptive measures to ensure strong plants are the best way to keep roses healthy. Plant roses in open, sunny, and breezy locations, and practice good garden hygiene by keeping the plants well pruned and removing fallen leaves, diseased canes, and garden litter from beds. Thinning plants promotes good circulation and helps avoid the humid conditions that breed fungus spores. You can also choose cultivars that have natural defenses. Developed before the modern age of chemical sprays, Old Garden roses such as the Gallica, Damask, and Alba varieties (all of which I grow) tend to be more naturally resistant to disease and pests than some of the newer hybrids.

It’s best to cut roses first thing in the morning, when it’s cool. I collect the flowers, such as this mix of varieties at Lily Pond, in a wicker gathering basket, then promptly put them in cold or lukewarm water to keep them from wilting. Before I begin arranging the roses, I use a sharp knife to clean the stems and strip them of their thorns. Kevin stresses the importance of choosing roses that also have healthy, beautiful foliage, which can serve as a buffer in an arrangement that combines several types.

HOW TO ARRANGE

CUTTING Roses can be cut at all different stages of bloom, depending on what kind of arrangement you have in mind. Tightly budded roses are quietly appealing, partial blooms are likely to open slowly, and fully blown blossoms can make for real showstopping arrangements.

Use sharp, clean cutters and trim the rose stems at an angle so that they do not sit flat on the bottom of the vase, which can impede water intake. For very woody-stemmed varieties, it can be beneficial to crosshatch (cut into the stem in an X pattern) the end of the branch so as to draw up more water. Promptly put the cut flowers in a bucket of lukewarm water (or cold water if you want them to remain at the bud stage longer). Kevin likes to give the flowers at least half an hour to soak; you can even let them soak overnight. It is worth the effort to remove the thorns. Use a stem stripper (see this page) or a sharp knife, and be patient. Some varieties will be thornier than others. (Don’t cut thorns from the actual plant, however; the wounds would allow insects and disease access.) On a rosebush, you can have a veritable bounty of roses, and there’s no reason not to cut a lot of them for display. When you snip existing blossoms, the plant diverts energy into the production of new flowers. So the more you cut, the more it will bloom.

MAINTAINING Roses are fairly hardy when treated well; they will last a long time as a cut flower, especially when cut in bud form. They benefit from regularly changing the water—even more so than other flowers—and they don’t attract any particular kind of pests. If choosing roses from outside of your own garden, make sure that the buds are not extremely tight and smooth, like onions. This generally means that the guard petals have been pulled off and the rose is essentially denuded; it would be like buying a head of lettuce without any lettuce leaves.

ARRANGING Cage frogs work well when arranging roses, because the stems are rarely consistent or uniform. Pay close attention to the stem, as it will dictate how that bloom can be used in an arrangement. For example, a huge, beautiful rose might be growing on a very slight, weak stem. Don’t try to fight it; instead, choose an arrangement and a vessel that can work with the stem you have.

Rose arrangements can be surprisingly versatile, as there are so many varieties of roses to choose from. And they can go in almost any container, depending on how many blooms you have and of which varieties. Some go-tos for Kevin and me are bubble bowls or trumpets. Kevin also loves a singular rose with a perfect leaf in a slim bud vase. An arrangement of many different types can look so diverse that you may not even recognize them all as roses. Even within a color family, there are so many hues of red or pink to highlight; mix different shades of crimson to accentuate the flower’s many moods. Match pale colors with saturated hues to make the brights pop, or group pastels to show off the differences in petal variety. To add interest to a yellow bouquet, throw in a stem of orange or pink. Don’t forget about the leaves; add a border of foliage to highlight the colors of the petals, and let the vessel’s lip support the weight of slender leaf stems.

A palette of rosy hues brings roses and yarrow together and creates a spectrum of shapes, from tiniest floret to full-blown bloom. Using a classic garden ornament, like this cast-iron urn in East Hampton, reinforces the idea of bringing the outdoors in. Kevin placed a ball of chicken wire in the urn to hold the stems securely, allowing him to create an extra-tall and -wide arrangement.

Blowsy roses are those big blooms that are just a touch past their peak. They’re glorious in their fullness and fragrance. Here, Kevin used a tape grid over a sawtooth-pattern pressed-glass trumpet vase to bring together a group of pale-pink roses from the Skylands garden, along with lady’s mantle, interspersed among the roses to give the arrangement variety and “fizz.”

Fragrance and texture combine in this grouping of Floribunda roses, jasmine, hellebore, and geranium leaves at Skylands. To keep the scent of the bouquet from being overpowering, it contains fewer roses than an arrangement this size otherwise could. A stout vessel from my collection of faux bois—its handle mimics a branch wrapping around a tree trunk—provides earthy balance.

A CONVERSATION WITH

KEVIN SHARKEY

Everyone has some kind of relationship to roses—you’ve either given or received them, and you’re bound to have a favorite.

 

Do you have a favorite rose?

I like tea roses, and Martha loves Old Garden roses. I’ve always loved red roses, especially with the green leaves attached—the colors complement each other so well. And then there are climbers: I remember the first time I went to Martha’s house in East Hampton, where her primary rose garden was, and I was blown away by the fact that she had trained climbing roses to go up the pear trees on the property. They looked like rose trees, because blooming vines were growing out of every branch. I’d never seen anything like it; it was such an incredible idea.

What do you pair with roses?

I love looking at just one rose, or a lot of them. Roses sometimes seem to me as if they don’t want to be with any other flowers: Just let the roses be with the roses. However, some varieties, especially spray roses, are beautiful when mixed in with other things. And I really appreciate the leaves on roses. They can help tie multicolor bouquets together and they’re an excellent shade of green (see photo on this page). That’s part of the reason why a single rose with its own leaf can be so perfectly beautiful. I like roses paired with lots of greenery; when I don’t use their own foliage, I also like geranium leaves or ferns. As an arranger, you should pay as much attention to the leaves as you do the flowers.

What are some rules on color?

I generally prefer to keep rose arrangements monochromatic (see this page)—but that’s not to say a multicolor bouquet can’t be beautiful. The important thing is to keep the color temperature at the forefront of your mind. Two roses may not mesh, even if they’re both red: A warm-hued red and a cool, blue-toned red won’t sit well together. Keep mixed colors in the same temperature family, even when it comes to white roses. If you pay attention to whether it’s a warm white or a cool white, it can really lift the color profile and provide some breathing room in a dense arrangement. But the wrong color white can throw everything off—think about how a colorful umbrella can cast a slightly “off” color onto the face of the person holding it. A white rose can sometimes cause odd color effects in the surrounding blooms, so when in doubt, skip the white roses in mixed-color arrangements.

Any common mistakes when arranging roses?

I do not endorse Gypsophila, commonly known as baby’s breath. The easiest thing you can do to make a rose arrangement 200 percent better is to take the baby’s breath out of it. I love baby’s breath, but it just doesn’t flatter roses. It changes the scale. I think sometimes people underestimate the approachability of roses—they have a reputation for being formal. But they look just as nice in a galvanized bucket as they do in a cut-glass bowl.

Any tricks for arranging roses?

The great thing about roses is they are incredibly versatile. A rose can be the star of an arrangement or a bunch can be used as filler flowers. They’re another flower I like to cut in all different stages—the tightly budded ones can be so pretty, and of course the full blooms are gorgeous. Some varieties have more thorns than others—you can use a stem stripper (see this page), but most of the time, I just use a knife or my hands.

I find cage frogs to be the most helpful for arranging. The stems are not consistent from rose to rose, so a cage helps to corral many different shapes and sizes. It’s always better to let the stem dictate what the flower can do—you might have the biggest, most beautiful flower head that you want to make the focus of your arrangement, but you may not be able to place it exactly how you envisioned. Don’t try to fight it—just value-engineer your arrangement into what the stems are telling you.

For greater impact than a single arrangement can provide, pair up colors and leaves in identical vases. These Gallica versicolors are among my favorite varieties of roses, for their exuberant striped blooms and beautiful fragrance. In this instance, Kevin paired them with white ‘Fair Bianca’ and red ‘Charles de Mille’ roses, along with a few of their healthiest dark green leaves, in English free-blown flip glasses, giving the arrangement a feeling of greater abundance and contrast. “When some flowers drop their petals, you want to brush them away,” Kevin says. “But rose petals can be left beneath the arrangement for a day.”

Use your imagination when choosing a vessel for roses. Think about repurposing something unexpected. Here, Kevin filled a shiny copper pudding mold with ‘Cardinal de Richelieu’ roses and accented them with delicate Indian painted ferns. These roses grow with many blossoms on a single branch; their short stems allow for an opportunity to use a more petite container.

This rare pink mercury-glass rose bowl reflects the room and the light on the staircase at Lily Pond. A pedestal elevates the arrangement and suits the narrow stairway landing. Combining Gallica versicolor and solid-color roses adds dimension to the mix, and fine-leaved, wispy Cotinus (smoke bush) lightens the display.

An unadorned apothecary jar holds a pale cluster of single, double, and full-form white and blush-pink roses, punctuated with buds. Kevin created a tape grid over the mouth of the jar to more easily position the roses in concentrated areas and hold them in place.

A straightforward dome of pink roses can take an artful turn with the addition of a few unexpected elements. Dusty-yellow roses with smoky centers, the patterned petals of bell-shaped fritillaria, and the pink carnations and jasmine vine reach outward to extend the arrangement, held in place by the classic shape of the bubble bowl, with its narrow mouth. Choosing an opaque vessel eliminates the need to arrange the stems perfectly. The bowl’s rose-gold color accentuates the scheme of the arrangement.