I love roses – all types, shapes, colors, sizes. However, I have never lived in a place long enough that is rose friendly. So each spring I would make my annual trek to the local rose garden and get my fill (is that possible?) of heady delight. In NYC, it was the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, in Wisconsin – Olbrich Botanical Garden, in Florida – Epcot Center, in Missoula MT- the Veterans Memorial Garden. All wonderful in my mind.
June is National Rose Month.
Vicky's painting "Faded Glory Roses"
So as far as growing roses, my experience is limited. My grandparents grew roses in Connecticut – my mother did not. I grew Fairy Roses in Tarpon Springs, FL – they could take the heat. In central Wisconsin – only very cold hearty roses survived my Zone 4 yard. Jacob’s Coat of Many Colors, Flutterby and other Floribunda types did just fine. I also experimented with a vintage rose called “Henry Nevard” (named after my great grandfather – according to family legend), first in a container, then in my yard. Oddly enough it flourished but did much better when I moved it to my ubber gardener neighbor’s much sunnier yard. A lovely deep magenta rose with an intense fragrance, it was worth the effort and due to it’s vintage nature was problem free.
Missoula MT was full of rose bushes. It’s Veterans Memorial Rose Garden maintained by an all volunteer Rose Society had over 300 different types. The sunny Zone 5 weather produced profusions of blooms as long as you watered twice a week. Montana is very dry. My tiny rental house front yard had two neglected two rose bushes. With renewed garden soil and fertilizer, they tripled in size during the four years I lived there.
Macho Man Rose bloom
One was a lavender hybrid tea called (believe it or not) “Macho Man”. The other an unknown floribunda deep red variety. I learned two important elements of raising roses – prune, prune, prune and fertilize. These rose buses bloomed from May to Sept, almost nonstop.
Macho Man bush
The photo that I took of the red roses with the American Flag in the background became the inspiration for a painting I did later in WI called Faded Glory Roses. This painting was selected to be reproduced as a 24 x 36 ft banner as part of The Gallery on Main Street event in Cable WI. The winning 15 banners will be displayed in front of various businesses in downtown Cable during the months of July and August. The original artwork with be auctioned off as part of a fund raiser for Cable Hayward Arts Council CHARAC.
Lots of symbolism here…read into it what you like.
Vicky's "Lo Buc Lodge"
Now in my current home in the Northwoods of WI, I do not grow roses. Zone 3 makes it way too difficult. Burying rose bushes in trenches each Fall is not my idea of fun gardening. My small log home came with a circular bed of shrub roses (almost wild) that bloom with abandon each July and then it’s over for the year. I prune and fertilize and try to keep their tendency to take over the yard under control. And I look at rose pix that friends send me. In the meantime I concentrate on Zone 3 hardy perennials and lots of the latest annuals. I paint from photos I have taken from previous gardens. Oh, well…it is what it is.
-Vicky Zalatoris
Vicky standing by her the banner featuring her faded glory rose imagery
Garden Fairy Vicky has roses in her blood, literarily. Her great grandfather has a rose named after him, “Henry Nevard”. It is described as a large, well-scented, dark red with a fine masculine quality. Is this the description of the man or the rose?
In honor of June (National Rose Month) Vicky and Siobhan have written articles on roses grown in the north and south.
Your story was very interesting Vicky…but you fairy-types lose me when you start talking “zones.” It reminds me of my friend Cheryl, also an exceptional lady, who dyes her own color spectrums then creates amazing quilts. When she starts explaining the math of dying in batches…ratios…etc. my eyes glaze over. It’s when I am absolutely sure I am totally out of my realm. The rose pictures are beautiful. I love the log house and want to live there. Your painting is gorgeous. Is it on canvas? It looks as if it’s on a hard surface. I recently purchase a little fairy rose, white, that sits on my patio table. I want to find a good place to plant her. I’m not a green thumb person, which is why I gravitate to succulents. But there is something so lovely about roses, isn’t there? Anyhoo- just wanted to swing by and take a peek. I’m glad I did! Deb
I love roses also! But I hate work. Most of my life I tried to grow roses in Zone 7 Mid-Atlantic – but black spot, aphids and Japanese beetles got the best of them. Recently I started growing Knock Out roses. Common, yes. Limited palette, yes. But boy do they thrive. I have 30 single pink KOR’s flowering on my hillside right now. Nothing beats carefree gardening…
I loved Shore Acres State Park’s 2 award winning rose gardens, on the former property of Louis Simpson, Oregon coast. New types of roses were cultivated for the annual competitions by Simpson’s gardeners.
Deborah – zones refer to the temperature ranges in a given area. You can check out your zone on any Temperature Zone map – often included in flower catalogs or websites. Plants will often list an appropriate zone range for successful growing. Your little fairy rose should do well in a morning sun location. Thank you for the painting compliment. It is a watercolor on paper.
Marilyn – vintage roses seem to be less susceptible to black spot and other diseases. Rose snobs view KOR’s as the McDonalds of roses. However, 30 pink roses bushes loving your hillside is okay by me.
I can’t grow them either here in Florida.
Growing up in So. Cal., we had every color rose bush you could imagine in our backyard. They liked the sunny cooler weather I guess.
I remember that they thrived around our growing pile of abalone shells that we threw back there
after a weekend in Catalina–it must have been good fertilizer (but would be mighty expensive and hard to find now-a-days!)
I am very impressed with your artistic talent also. I would not have known that was watercolor. Like Deb, I guessed oils–great job (from one artist to another!)