I have been traveling a very inviting pathway to a building complex on the UC Davis complex quite a bit during the last few months. As I enter the complex I am put at ease at the sight of the hedges of shrub roses. The shrubs line the parking lots, pathways, and lawns surrounding the various buildings. These rose shrubs have been covered in rosy blooms of pink, despite the very hot temperatures since late May.
I am curious, these roses don't seam to have any disease issues, no black spot, rust, mildew or any aphids. Many years ago I planted two simple rose shrubs. They reminded me of the roses I had seen on my travels up the Mendocino coast. Those roses were leaning on wooden fence rails, tucked under window sills and sometimes stuck right out in an open field. The flowers from these bushy roses were usually a simple form, sometimes with just a few petals lying open to catch the sun. The bushes I planted then were also carefree and only required an annual dead-heading and pruning to keep them in-bounds from the bordering sidewalks and driveway. The roses were not full of thorns, but they weren't the type I would cut and put in a vase. The rose bushes I see now remind me of those simple roses of years ago.
As my husband and I contemplated retirement, and the time we would have to indulge in our hobbies, we both agreed the addition of roses to the gardens would be something we would both enjoy. We took long rides to the rose nurseries along Highway 92 near Half Moon Bay and chose many beautiful roses from the blooming selections. We mostly chose the hybrid tea roses with their elegant stems and glorious fragrant blooms. We placed these newcomers throughout the garden, even creating a bed of standard tree roses nearby the dining room windows, what a beautiful display they would provide.
These hybrid tea roses took a lot more time and effort than what I was used to with the simpler shrub roses of years ago. I expected more dead-heading and pruning to keep the elegant shape, but now I had many persistent disease issues that just wouldn't go away. I did discover that when a disease took over a hybrid tea, that severe pruning would not kill the plant. Roses are tough plants and many times would return with a vengeance, especially the really thorny ones. I also learned that if I pruned below the grafting point with the root stock, the pretty rose on top was no longer part of the plant, duh! So you live and learn. OK, now after about eight years with these hybrid tea roses, I am slowly replacing them with drought-tolerant perennials that actually like growing in USDA Zone 9b with only a little pruning to keep them in-bounds, similar to those bush roses I planted in the early 80's.
As I walk the parking lot and up the pathways, past the lawns and the bicycles, I am very tempted to add roses back to our garden. But this time they will be the bushy type shrub roses.
On the UC Davis campus I discovered Arboretum All-Stars program, also on line at arboretum.ucdavis.edu/arboretum_all_stars.aspx . A plant that makes it as an "All- Star" must be low maintenance, drought-tolerant, attract beneficial wildlife, and for trees be power-line friendly. You can search this group on line for more information on each plant in the program. At this site I found Rosa 'Korbin', Rosa 'Perle d'Or', Rosa 'Pink Gruss an Aachen' and my favorite, Rosa x odorata 'Mutabilis' . The 'Mutabilis', aka Butterfly Rose, is particularly nice with an open canopy and multi-colored flowers. I have seen this shrub rose growing beautifully alongside various perennials, especially complimentary to many of the gray-green Mediterranean perennials I have seen on campus.
In the fall, when I usually add new plants to the garden, I will once again add roses back into the garden, but this time they will be shrub roses from the All-Star selections.
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