Visitors to the Garden of the Sun are invited to stroll along the new “Rose Lane,” where the demonstration garden’s 32 varieties of roses line a walking path near the entrance.
The selections at GOS are just a few of the estimated 30,000 rose varieties cultivated around the world. They represent several popular categories of garden roses that do well in Fresno County: hybrid teas, floribunda, grandiflora and climbing roses.
The collection is maintained by UC Master Gardener Bill Powell, who has grown roses for more than 50 years and has nearly three dozen rose bushes in his home garden.
“It was my starter plant and I never stopped. I love them,” Powell said.
At GOS, the collection includes the classic deep red Mr. Lincoln, dusty mauve Barbara Streisand, fragrant Modern Magic and the delicate white Peace Rose, along with myriad vibrant colors ranging from red, pink and yellow to apricot, magenta and lilac. The best way to decide on which to put in your own garden, Powell said, is to come look and smell for yourself.
Many of the roses in Rose Lane were transplanted from another area in the garden, demonstrating that transplanting mature rose plants is possible. Only one – a specimen named Blue Girl – didn’t transplant successfully, said Master Gardener Emily LaRue, who was involved in developing Rose Lane. “She has since been replaced with another Blue Girl.”
Rose Lane now provides plants that can be used to teach rose pruning techniques in future community education classes.
In caring for Rose Lane, Powell has his own proprietary blend of organic and synthetic fertilizers which he uses with great success, but it’s rarely the same from application to application and year to year. It’s created with a combination of experience and intuition to meet the plant’s nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium needs.
His advice to gardeners: Pay close attention to nitrogen in applying fertilizer, since that’s the key nutrient robust garden rose bushes will need. But use it judiciously to be sure the nitrogen doesn’t leach beyond the roses’ root zone.
For more information about growing roses, read the monthly “Rosie’s Corner” column in the Fresno Gardening Green blog.
The Garden of the Sun, 1750 N. Winery Ave., in Fresno is open to the public from 8 to 11 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
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Written by UC Master Gardener Jeannette Warnert