My problems with Roses

Besides disliking the cliche red bouquet, I'd never thought much about roses until I moved into a Los Angeles apartment with a couple of rose bushes out front. They'd flower every once in a while and didn't seem to require any attention from me - ever. That apartment had a gardener who'd come by once a month or so to tidy things up. At first I was upset that he kept cutting back the branches, but soon realized that this pruning helped keep the bush in production. So I continued to ignore the bushes.

Then I moved to another rental up North and inherited two rose bushes. The front bush was covered in spent flowers and many of the leaves were yellowing or had black spots. I'd learned enough in Los Angeles to know that dead heading could help. And it did. The bush continued to bloom well into the fall. While pruning, I found that the rose seemed to be two bushes growing closely together. Why anyone would have planted them this way was beyond me, but I thought the tiny buds growing at the side were a cute bonus. This shows you how little I knew about roses.

When I started work on the front yard in February, I thought adding more roses could help with the continuity. But I didn't do much research and just picked two from the nursery that looked pretty and came recommended (Double Delight and John F. Kennedy). I soaked the roots, made holes in the ground, fertilized, and planted. And only after this did I really start my rose education.

The neighbor across the street (who seems to know all things plant related) called the tiny tea rose shooting off my original bush "pedestrian." Then he explained the whole grafting phenomenon which this beginning gardener should have already known. As per his instructions, I pruned the "Perfect Moment" heavily and brought out the big shovel to try to rid myself of the offending shoots from the rootstock. Crisis averted. Or so I thought.

I started to read more about roses- the types, grafting and pruning techniques, care instructions, and so on. But the more I read, the more behind I realized I was.

An example: My Perfect Moment started to get black spot again. Every book I read told me that it was irreversible. My only hope was to pick off all infected leaves and spray with fungicide. So I went to the crunchy, organic nursery and bought the spray then picked off so many leaves, the bush looked like a bunch of thorny twigs and sprayed it down. After two weeks, it is still an eyesore. And the neighbor has since advised me to scrap the spray and just plant garlic around the base. Oy. I really had tried to do my research and failed yet again.

Another example: This one deals with my new roses. In Second Nature, Michael Pollan describes the downside to modern hybrid roses. In fact, he says very little that is positive about them. Instead, he lauds Old English Roses that seem to be hardier and produce flowers only once a season. My Double Delight and J.F.K are certainly hybrids and certainly not up to snuff according to Mr. Pollan. So here I seem to have failed again.

The good to come out of all my follies: I'll know better next time.