Growing roses in a sand pit

Early on in my adventures in Florida gardening, I’d decided that I wanted to try my hand at roses…  eventually. You know, because my mom made it look so easy in Connecticut in the ’60s. (No wonder she can’t watch Mad Men… strikes too close to home.) I kept putting roses off for when I had more time.

Maggie's color holds up in the bright Florida sunshine

But every so often those Jackson & Perkins catalogs and others would arrive with the alluring photos arranged by color and type. The overblown copywriting, describing scent like fine wine; “An assertive fragrance with hints of raspberry and citrus.” You know what I mean; rose porn. Order some and your back yard can become a heady bower of rosy profusion. Plop a Peace rose in the ground and you’re just one pair of Felco pruners and a raised pinkie in a pair white gloves away from suburban Nirvana, sipping Earl Grey while discussing John Updike. It’s what you do when you garden, right? Easy-schmeasy.

Every Florida bug wants to do in your blooms

But Florida hates your twee little carpet-bagging roses. Every Florida bug, spore and scale — along with withering heat and humidity — wants to do in your little wussy, perfumed double blooms of the more temperate climes and single-digit zones. (But first it wants to cover them in fungus and torture them while we’re forced to watch.)

Sarasota Spice has an unusual cascading form

So you have a couple of choices, especially if you’re a lazy gardener like me: you can go the 21st c. route via genetic engineering (it’s Science you know!) and get some Knockouts & Drifts discussed previously. In addition to the Knockouts, you can also try Earth-Kind® cultivars developed by the Texas AgriLife Extension office, and I have a big favorite — perfect for the Tampa Bay area I’ll mention it below. I have no problem with the new hybrids and fully intend to try out some of the newer Easy Does Its and gorgeously informal Drifts.

Seeking out “old garden” roses

Belinda's Dream shrugs off disease

But another route to Florida rose nirvana is to seek out “old garden” (also “heirloom”, or “antique”) roses, tried and true in Florida for a century or more. (Or less.) The terms are fuzzy; apparently rosarians (of which I am decidedly not one…) use the date of 1867 (when hybrid teas were first introduced) as the dividing line between “old” and “modern” roses. But old garden roses may also include some found or introduced during the first half of the 20th c. At any rate, the urge to have roses in the garden occurred to Florida’s earliest European settlers and 20th c. northern transplants alike, and we can learn from the their hard-eared trials and errors.

Less than fussy roses for Florida

Tiffany, hybrid tea recommended for central Florida

Old Garden Roses (OGR) in the Florida garden are generally far less fussy than modern hybrid teas and far more resistant to black spot fungus. No rose is immune but my own observation is that old garden types can tolerate black spot pretty well, and even recover in cycles, if they get hit at all. One of my favorite roses ever, hybrid tea Double Delight, was once-upon-a-time a recommended rose for central Florida. You used to be able to find them in stores everywhere; not anymore. The fragrance of this gorgeous creamy yellow and scarlet-edged hybrid tea was so heady, I once had to take a vase of them out of my studio because it was just too, too much. But black spot continually weakened this poor thing, even on Fortuniana stock, to the point it just died. Constant spraying is the only way to deal with less resistant, fussy teas and I won’t go that route.

Staying away from sprays

I don’t spray with pesticides and spraying isn’t needed for OGR’s and some of the new cultivars. They’re light feeders as far as fertilizer is concerned and thrive on healthy soil and organic techniques as long as you’re willing to tolerate the occasional yellowed leaf and spotted leaf or two. They have a general rambling, cottage garden look — and best of all: many smell absolutely wonderful.

I’ve planted a smattering from recommended lists of old roses, teas and new hybrids for central FL — and for the Tampa Bay area specifically. I’m very conscious of water usage; roses can be heavy users, especially during our drought months, but I don’t baby mine. They have to be able to make it in between waterings in the heat, and I mulch heavily to help. But I’ve found that the ones I’ve chosen  — especially the OGR’s — are pretty bullet-proof and survive some neglect pretty well. Regardless, no matter how tough the previous year, a light to moderate pruning in January; new applications of mulch, Black Cow and some organic rose fertilizer and they bounce back beautifully from the fresh start every single time.

I’m still experimenting and here’s what I’ve tried in my yard so far:

Maggie- beautiful and compact, fragrant with a deep carmine pink color

1. Maggie

Maggie was recommended for the Tampa Bay area in an article by then-gardening columnist John Starnes in the St. Petersburg Times a few years ago and was the first old rose I tried. It’s beautiful and compact, fragrant and deep carmine pink in color. It’s a “found” rose from an old Lousiana garden and of unknown origin but it’s been recently theorized that may actually be an old Bourbon-type rose named ‘Eugène E. Marlitt’. My Maggie is has a nice, spicy fragrance and is a repeat bloomer, though I’ve found that it’s a bit stunted by being crowded by my ever expanding night-blooming jasmine. I plan to move Maggie to a better location next spring, but her great performance while under increasing shade (and the fact it practically rose from the dead after the 16 yr. old kid I hired weed-whacked it into oblivion) makes me think it’s practically indestructible. I ordered mine from Antique Rose Emporium.

2. Cherokee

I used to have a Cherokee Cherokee Rose, a Chinese native brought to America by 1759 and it naturalized in the South a little too easily. (It’s Georgia’s state flower.) It only bloomed once a year here in late winter with large, white, single-petal blooms with an odd-but-nice grapefruit-y fragrance. The foliage was a beautiful glossy green with never a problem with fungus or parasites, but man were those barbed thorns wicked! It put out incredibly long canes that would grab guests pants-legs coming to my front door if I didn’t hack them back every week. It also became a favorite fortress for mockingbirds building nests and for black racers to lunge at my ankles when I walked out to get the mail. I removed it finally, but I think I’d like to re-establish another one someday in the back for animal and bird shelter and just to have those gorgeous white blooms again in the winter. Might be neat to pair it with some blackberry canes just to make it extra-dangerous. And yummy…

Duchess de Brabant- dates from1857, sports a classic cabbage style shape

3. Duchess de Brabant

Another one I purchased was Duchesse de Brabant, an old tea type from 1857 and recommended for central FL and Tampa Bay according to several lists. It looks like the classic pink “cabbage” rose from 19th c. still life paintings. It’s delicately fragrant, and a continuous bloomer but the blooms are a bit fragile & droopy when cut. Seems to be practically immune to black spot, or at least mine is. I’ll attempt to move this one next spring too as its busy-body rose neighbor is growing rampant and is crowding the Duchess out. It might develop larger blooms and stronger canes and stems with more sun.

Don Juan- a rugged, profuse blooming climber that can reach 10 feet

4. Don Juan

Don Juan (1958) is a modern climber, but it’s as idiot-proof as roses come for Florida. It’s a rugged, profusely blooming climber to easily 10′. The large blooms are highly fragrant and are Through The Looking-Glass’s Red Queen’s red roses-red: as red as a red rose should be. My first Don Juan was a Home Depot rose (probably on Dr. Huey stock) I bought in 1994 that eventually succumbed to black spot after only five years. I ordered an own-root Don Juan from Antique Rose Emporium two years ago and it’s tall, tough-as-nails and beautiful.

5. Tiffany

I do have one hybrid tea recommended for our area, Tiffany, that I found on Fortuniana stock on sale at a Target, of all places. Large pink blooms with creamy yellow undertones. It does seem to deal okay with occasional black spot but the blooms are the classic, large, intensely fragrant cutting roses that hybrid teas are known for. I’m not looking for any more roses of this type, and my Tiffany is my only rose that gets coddled in a container, but the fragrance of the blooms alone are worth it.

6. Sarasota Spice

Sarasota Spice (A.R.E.) was developed by local rosarian John Starnes in 2006 and has a nice, unusual cascading form. Clusters of small, mildly fragrant white blooms form from around March/April all the way to fall along bushy “arms” and contrast nicely with the other roses. I’d like to put one of these on a low trellis behind some other flowers for a cottage look.

7. Belinda’s Dream Flush

Lady Banks up close

My biggest success story by far is Belinda’s Dream, an Earthkind rose developed in 1992. It grows really fast, makes a nice shrub and continually flushes in waves with lovely pink and very fragrant blooms. It’ll show a spot or two but Belinda’s Dream just shrugs off disease as long as it’s given lots of manure & compost to keep it happy. I bought a second one last year. A very easy rose for our area; highly recommended.

On the lookout for Florida friendly yellow roses

If any of you out there have had some success with old roses in yellow, please let me know! I’ve chosen mine from recommended lists for their known fragrance, which seems to be more prevalent with pink roses. But I’m not that into girlie-pink; I’d love to find some yellow ones to mix in with cottage beds, like the old rose climber, Yellow Lady Banks that Siobhan recently mentioned to me.

Holly recommends these links:

Nelson’s Florida Roses list of antiques

Lady Banks in full flush

Tampa Rose Society’s list of some varieties popular with members

John Starne Jr.’s article “Roses Won’t Grow In Florida” with list of his recommended OGR’s

Starne’s Tampa rose blog

Central Florida Rose Society’s best roses list

– Holly Bird, June 2011