Text and photographs: Marianne Alexander. Article from the October 2013 issue of Garden and Home Magazine.
Roses that are always ready to flower yet don’t need pampering are the answer for time-pressed gardeners. Here are four that stand head and shoulders above the rest
‘Garden and Home’
It’s a rose that epitomises romance. The lightly fragrant blooms are as rich as clotted cream with a honey-apricot centre and a flush of pink on the upper petals. The old-fashioned shape is reminiscent of 19th-century rose varieties.
What’s to like: Each of the many stems produces a cluster of blooms, so just one bush makes a show. Being a quick, repeat-flowering variety it produces new blooms faster than other roses. The trim, leaf-covered bush seems untroubled by pests and diseases. Regular watering and fertilising is all it needs to perform.
Garden uses: This excellent bedding rose can be planted en masse, used as a hedge, grown in containers, mixed with other roses and grown as a standard (lollipop). .
Did you know? This rose was named to celebrate Garden and Home’s 50th anniversary.
Look out for the ladybird!
In his catalogue, Ludwig Taschner of Ludwig’s Roses marks all his disease-resistant Eco Chic roses with a ladybird. This means that they have a natural resistance to fungal diseases, so there’s no need to spray.
‘South Africa’
Clusters of huge, full blooms in a rich golden colour catch the eye wherever it’s planted.
What’s to like: When ‘South Africa’ was released 10 years ago, it changed the perception that yellow roses are more delicate in growth, subject to diseases and have soft petals that fade quickly in the sun. With basic care, this rose grows vigorously, quickly rejuvenates after flowering and cutting back and the deep green leaves are healthy and disease resistant.
Garden uses: The neat growth and unfading flowers make this an outstanding rose for borders, growing in broad rose beds mixed with picking varieties and also in large containers.
‘Easy Does It’
This rose is really easy on the eye with soft, luminous golden-orange blooms that are ruffled around the edges; a most unusual trait.
What’s to like: ‘Easy Does It’ combines all the best characteristics of a great garden rose: neat, hip-high growth that doesn’t need trimming, bright green leaves impervious to black spot and powdery mildew and continuous clusters of flowers that don’t fade. The flowers last well in the vase.
Garden uses: This top performer is ideal for mass planting, as a border, in small groups in a flower bed, in tubs and is especially spectacular as a standard.
‘Arctic Ice’
A classic beauty, the silver-lilac hybrid tea blooms are tinged with pink and exude a strong, fruity fragrance.
What’s to like: Its unique feature is the continual production, from the early stages onwards, of straight-stemmed, pickable, florist-quality blooms. The plant is powerful, growing into a 3m x 3m shrub. Young, copper-coloured leaves mature to deep green and have a natural resistance to black spot. This is a new class of hybrid tea rose that’s rugged and virtually maintenance free.
Garden uses: Despite its enormous size ‘Arctic Ice’ is a neat, self-supporting shrub that’s magnificent as a freestanding focal plant. It’s enhanced by compact yellow roses like ‘South Africa’ and ‘Sunny Ayoba’ planted around its base. Plants spaced 1,5m apart will form a hedge, which can be clipped after each flush of flowers. It also makes a superb background planting for rose beds and flourishes in large 100-litre capacity containers.
Rose Guru Ludwig Taschener’s Tips for growing roses
- Before planting roses, enrich your normal garden soil with compost and dig down to a depth of 60cm.
- Like all garden plants, roses require regular watering. Make life easier with an irrigation system that delivers 10 litres of water a week in summer to bush roses and more for shrubs and climbers.
- Fertilise once a month with a rose fertiliser, like Vigorosa, and water well afterwards.
Don’t be bugged
Although we may not like the look of them, insects like aphids and beetles are generally not detrimental to plants. Most can be removed with a jet of water.
Source Ludwig’s Roses ludwigsroses.co.za
Related Content
