Erica Browne Grivas
A rose is not just a rose — pick the right ones for the Pacific Northwest.
At high summer is when roses come out to shine. They also have a quieter reprise in September before they go gently into winter, but if you are considering adding a rose or two to your life, this is the perfect time to find inspiration in gardens.
Roses are having a massive re-brand. Although they have been adored for centuries around the world, and are as a group very long-lived and resilient, the hybrid teas in fashion from say the 50s to the 80s gave them an unfair rep as high-maintenance divas. Many of those were bred more for tall stems for florists and flower show tables, and less for garden-worthiness and disease-resistance. They were sprayed for diseases, fed massive amounts of fertilizer, and had to be continuously pruned and cleaned. Most of the time they were segregated into rose battalions, with nary a groundcover in sight, to preserve air circulation.
Happily, breeders got busy creating roses that were disease resistant, and had a loser, relaxed shrub form that fit better into the garden — and also into our busy lives. They could play with other plants, and needed less spraying, feeding and fussing.
The Pacific Northwest is great for roses in that it tends toward very warm and dry in the summer, when roses are leafed out. Cool rainy springs and falls are not their favorite, so choosing varieties that are resistant to fungal diseases like black spot and mildew, and make sure to give them a little elbow room for air circulation. If those conditions show up, remove all affected leaves to prevent the disease spreading this year or next.
In Seattle, the Woodland Park Rose Garden is a lovely short visit with no admission charge, and it demonstrates best practices using more organic care methods, as well as lovely examples of underplanting to cover the roses’ knobby knees.
Today there are numerous “shrub” roses that blend into the garden or border beautifully, and many are even fragrant — which for me is a main point of a rose. In my own garden, I probably don’t have enough roses, but someone would have to go to make room in my sunny beds. Also, few of mine are fragrant, so that needs to be remedied. But, I will say they are all easy-care and have been disease-free.
The roses I do have are:
• Climber ‘Lady Banks’ — a once-blooming charmer that smothers itself with smaller lemon yellow flowers in May. It’s a fast grower that in our yard would like to be pruned for neatness at least twice a year,, but it’s thornless, so it’s easy. The world’s largest known rose specimen in Texas is a Lady Banks. Watch out, that’s all I’m saying.
• Rosa glauca — a species rose that’s different from what you probably think of, but lovely in every way. Blue foliage, burgundy stems, cerise single blooms, bright red hips all make it a three-season standout.
• ‘Flower Carpet Amber’ — in my parking strip, it puts on a great show with apricot-yellow buds and cherry red buds. It’s supposed to rebloom, so am practicing not deadheading and fertilizing lightly with a balanced fertilizer. This is a “groundcover type” a group also including the “Drift” and “Oso Easy” series.
• ‘Westerland’ — a lusty shrub with vivacious tangerine flowers and a nice scent but some honking big thorns. It’s making it with scant attention in a clay soil bed. Well, I mean, I prune it in spring, and throw some compost and mulch on it, of course.
• ‘Mister X’ — Not his real name, my best guess is this is the graft variety for some other rose that failed before we moved in. Most roses are grafted onto a tough-as-nails variety at the base. You’ll see a big lumpy union that should be kept two inches below ground. I’ve been pruning it to stumps for 10 years and it looks better than ever this year.
It has double burgundy blooms — I see similar ones around town that I imagine are also graft-takeovers.
If I had space, I’d consider the once-blooming but unforgettable old rose ‘Maiden’s Blush,’ or a fragrant David Austin-bred shrub rose. Erin Benzakein, of the famed Floret Farms in Snohomish, is tempting me with videos of all her favorite David Austins now, making me eye which shrub will have to go.
While the biggest selection of roses will be in February through April sold bare root, you can find roses in containers at you nursery now, and the buyers will select roses ideal for the PNW. Nita-Jo Rountree’s book “Growing Roses in the Pacific Northwest: 90 Best Varieties for Successful Rose Growing” is a great resource to study while you make your shopping list.