Roses
By Tami Reece UCCE Master Gardener
I would like to plant a rose this spring. What kind of rose do I buy and how do I plant it? Cheryl C. Paso Robles
There are several different types and varieties of roses. Where you want to plant the rose will help you decide which type of rose to buy. Some options include the hybrid tea, floribunda, grandiflora, climbing, a standard, shrubs and more.
A hybrid tea rose is the dominant rose class in the modern rose garden. They are generally 3 to 5 feet tall bush roses with well-formed single flowers. The Floribunda rose has individual flowers that grow in clusters and are bushy plants that grow 2 to 4 feet high. Grandifloras are crosses between hybrid teas and floribunda and these bushes are generally 5 to 8 feet tall. Climbing roses have long flexible canes that reach 8 to 20 feet or more and are planted against a wall or fence. A standard or “tree” rose is a bush rose budded onto a rootstock for a healthy root system and another rootstock that will provide a long slender stem. The shrub rose is a broad term used to describe the mixed-ancestry of roses that do not fit any of the established classifications. These shrubs range from 4 to 10 feet tall and function as landscape shrubs. Old garden roses or heritage roses are roses that came into existence before the tea roses in 1867. Miniature roses are hybrid roses bred to produce flowers 1 to 2 inches in size on plants usually 2 feet or less in height.
Out of these different types of roses, old garden roses and miniature roses are generally the only roses that grow from their own rootstock. Roses are usually budded on commercial rootstock that is disease resistant and thrives in a wide range of soils and climates. Both budded and own-root can yield good quality flowers. Own-root plants killed to the ground by frost will regrow as the same rose. Not so with budded roses. Also with budded roses, you will have suckers or growth that arises from below the budded union which will need to be removed often.
Watch for next Wednesday's article on bare root roses, container roses, and how to plant and care for a rose.