It's Coming Up Roses

Trim back existing plants or buy bare-root.

By JOAN S. BOLTON
South Coast Beacon

Let the mania begin. January kicks off bare-root season, with roses in their prime for buying in the buff.

The plants are dormant this time of year, so what you'll find at local nurseries are grotesque silhouettes of stubby roots, stems and branches. But after only a few months in the ground, those awkward clumps will transform themselves into shapely shrubs with luscious blooms.

What to choose? You can go the safe route, by selecting from among tried and true roses for the South Coast. If you're feeling more adventurous, check out the new introductions for 2004. Or throw caution to the wind and make your choices based on those beautiful glossy pinups at the nursery.

Regardless of your approach, do bear in mind how much space your new roses will take, and how they will grow.

If your goal is to gather bouquets, look for hybrid teas. The typically upright plants bear long-stemmed flowers.

However, if you'd rather admire your roses in the garden, head for the floribundas. These bushy shrub roses tend to bear clusters of shorter stemmed flowers above nicer, more lush leaves.

Other types include antique roses, new roses bred to look like antique roses, ground cover roses, grandifloras and climbers. With the climbers, remember that most of your flowers will bloom on top of the foliage. The plants are probably not suited to cover a patio unless all you want to see are the undersides of the criss-crossing canes. Climbers are much prettier when clambering over arbors, trailing across fences or trained against walls and fences.

Best Bets

Iceberg is by far the best-selling rose on the South Coast. And with good reason. The robust white floribunda bears candelabra-like clusters of baseball-sized flowers for months on end. Even the recent frost doesn't seem to have slowed it down much: several of mine still have 20 to 30 blooms apiece. (Yet I'll still be pruning them back before month's end.)

Gourmet Popcorn is another easy white. It's classified as a miniature, due to its dainty repeat blooms. But the plant itself forms a nice, small shrub. You may also find it trained as a tree rose.

Double Delight mixes it up, with its white petals edged in strawberry red. The hybrid tea has a wonderful, spicy scent.

Mr. Lincoln is a tall, classic hybrid tea that comes in solid red, with fragrance to boot. Olympiad and Ingrid Bergman are not as heavily scented hybrid teas. But they're not as likely to mildew, either.

Knockout's flowers lean to cherry red, with loose, single flowers and yellow centers. The relatively new shrub rose was introduced in 2000, and was bred to resist blackspot and other diseases.

Traditional red climbers include Altissimo, which bears tall pillars of open-faced flowers; and fragrant Don Juan, which thrives in hotter, inland and canyon gardens.

Cécile Brunner is a disease-free companion climber in pink. The diminutive double has certainly survived the test of time: it was introduced in 1881.

The stately Queen Elizabeth leads the ranks of other terrific pinks. The tall, formal pink rose became the first-ever grandiflora when it was introduced in 1954. (Grandifloras are simply tall floribundas.)

Bewitched is among the queen's progeny: stepping out in 1967, it's an upright hybrid tea bearing more fragrant, but paler pink long-stemmed roses. Carefree Delight sports an altogether different habit: the informal shrub bears loose, single-petaled blush pink flowers.

If something more aggressive excites you, look for Purple Tiger, a floribunda in stripes of lavender, purple and white. Barbra Streisand is a strong scented, solid lavender. Undoubtedly due to the star power of its namesake, the hybrid tea was in high demand when it debuted in 2001.

In yellow, licorice-scented Sun Flare is as disease-resistant as they come. The low, mounding floribunda is terrific as a border, blooming just about all year. About the only knock against it is its flower size. If only a little bigger, Sun Flare might rival Iceberg in popularity.

Other reliable yellows include two hybrid teas: Midas Touch and Oregold. However, depending on the year, mildew may be a problem.

In shades of orange and apricot, Tropicana, a hybrid tea, and Joseph's Coat, a climber, are often recommended. But both are prune to mildew as well.

Voodoo is a more carefree choice. Among the most dramatic of the oranges and apricots, the hybrid tea is also one of the most disease resistant and vigorous roses we can grow on the South Coast. The flowers are a striking orange-yellow, with a fruity fragrance.

New for 2004

Two floribundas and a hybrid tea are All-America Rose Selections winners for 2004. AARS tests roses in 27 public gardens across the United States for several years before naming annual winners.

Day Breaker blooms in clusters of classic spirals in shades of yellow, pink and apricot. A floribunda, it's said to grow about 3 feet tall and wide and have "very good" disease resistance.

Honey Perfume bears apricot yellow flowers with a spicy fragrance. Also a floribunda, it grows about 3 1/2 feet tall and 2 1/2 feet wide, and has been bred to resist rust and powdery mildew.

The lone hybrid tea, Memorial Day, comes in a pretty shade of lavender pink. The 5-inch, crinkly-edged flowers bloom atop what are described as "low-thorn" stems, and carry a strong damask scent. Expect the plants to grow 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide.

Joan S. Bolton is a freelance writer and garden designer who lives in Goleta. Her In the Garden column appears biweekly. She can be contacted at www.santabarbaragardens.com.

Pruning Roses

While January marks the start of bare-root season, it's also time to prune your existing roses.
Start by cutting out any old canes that are thick, gray and gnarled.

Next, remove any younger canes that are misshapen or cross back through the middle.

On a hybrid tea, thin out the remaining canes so that you're left with three to five canes bending away from the crown to form a vase-like shape. Then cut off their tops so you end up with about 18 to 36 inches of stem. Vary the heights a bit so the new growth won't seem too rigid.

On a floribunda, leave five to seven canes, and cut the tops a bit shorter.

The height business is as much a matter of personal choice as it is science: you'll find as many opinions as you do folks who grow roses.

In any case, be sure to make all your cuts at an angle away from outward facing buds. This helps the new growth to move up and out from the center, which allows sunlight to reach the crown. That, in turn, stimulates the dormant buds, which eventually encourages more prolific flowering.

– Joan S. Bolton