Which rose?
In Colorado, where the stunning landscape is also challenging and water consumption is a perennial concern, knowing which roses will fare well with the least amount of water can be the best way to narrow the field
People assume that all roses take a lot of water but the truth is that a lot of the species roses, as well as a lot of the modern shrub roses, really require less water than traditional hybrid tea roses, says Matt Douglas, owner of Denver’s High Country Roses.
“Many roses, primarily the species roses, can be incorporated into landscaping in nearly xeric conditions,” he says. “These include the Rosa glauca and the Rosa woodsii. The drought-resistant woodsii is not considered the most beautiful, but it fits the bill for low water needs.”
His personal favorite is Rosa glauca, or redleaf rose.
“It’s a fantastic shrub; once a year it blossoms with tiny pink buds,” Douglas says. “It can grow up to 6 feet and will survive in nearly waterless conditions once established.” A similar rose is the Austrian copper, which produces an orange flower, blooms once a year, and does well in this climate.
Rosa glauca also is a designated rose for Plant Select, the cooperative program administered by Denver Botanic Gardens and Colorado State University in concert with horticulturists and nurseries throughout the Rocky Mountain region and beyond. Plant Select (plantselect.org ) identifies and distributes the best plants for landscapes and gardens from the intermountain region to the high plains.
“This is a great resource for anyone who wants to identify plants that will thrive here,” Douglas says. Another Plant Select-designated rosebush is “Ruby Voodoo.” It’s “a double-bloom, very fragrant, modern hybrid that is a good choice for a first-time rose gardener,” Douglas says.
For history lovers, High Country’s repertoire includes five varieties of Fairmount roses. These are roses found in east Denver’s Fairmount Cemetery and propagated about 20 years ago. At its 1890 founding, Fairmount (fairmountheritagefoundation.org) was the largest developed landscape of its time west of the Mississippi.
These rose varieties, known for their wonderful fragrances and beautiful hips in fall, include the Ghislaine de Féligonde, an old-fashioned rambler that forms a large shrub with few thorns. It blooms in apricot and ages into a pale yellow. The highly popular Fairmount Red, closely related to a hybrid perpetual, blooms in crimson magenta with cabbage-style blooms. And the Fairmount Proserpine, of unknown origins, offers a deep fuchsia double bloom with a tight knob of center petals.
Both the Jeremiah Pink and JoAn’s Pink Perpetual live up to their names with gorgeous pink blooms. JoAn’s is a repeat bloomer, growing up to six feet tall.
“Old Garden Roses are classified as those that existed before 1867 and are known for their hardiness and fragrance,” says Patricia Carmody, executive director of the Fairmount Heritage Foundation. “We know that landscape architect/Fairmount Cemetery designer Reinhard Schuetze planted 380 roses of all kinds in 1891, the first year of planting at Fairmount. A lot of other roses were planted by families and took over some of the monuments, so we divided some and moved them to our Rose Garden/Gazebo area.”
The Fairmount Arboretum houses one of the largest known collections of Old Garden Roses in North America.
“We have 400 rose bushes here, many of which still need to be identified,” said Carmody. “Some have study names given to them from a survey done in the 1990s. One rose is called the Mae Fair, found planted next to the grave of a woman named Mae Fair.
Fairmount’s goal is to propagate more of the roses found on its grounds to preserve their genetics. Funds from its rose sales, and its upcoming tour in June, will go toward that project.
And the tour should be a barn-burner this year, Carmody said. “With all the moisture we received this past winter, everything is really popping.”
Grow with the (low) flow
If you really want to grow without much water, buy a rose that blooms only once in the spring, when moisture is at its highest, advises Sharron Zaun, a Boulder gardener and member of the Rose Society. “After it blooms, you can enjoy it as a shrub.”
Old garden roses are good choices, she says; try Banshee, which is very tall and exceedingly fragrant with pink, double blooms, and purple fall foliage. Other good, tough choices:
Rosa arkanasas and Rosa hugonis, a.k.a. the Father Hugo rose, a once-blooming, extremely hardy plant with yellow blooms.
“These species roses occur in the wild, all over the world,” Zaun says. “We have native roses in Colorado, along the streams, and we have taken these species to breed.”
All roses will grow in Colorado’s clay soils, but they do like good drainage, she notes. “Add an organic material such as compost to nourish your roses and help them retain water. Consider planting them in raised beds, which also helps with drainage.” For the best results, she says, choose a rose bush that is on its own roots, not a grafted rose.
And remember to think roses beyond the growing and blooming season. One of the reasons Rosa glauca is so prized is that after the bloom, its silvery red foliage is lovely all summer long. The hips — where a rose holds its seeds — are orange.
“I can look out my bedroom window in the middle of November and see these orange hips against the gray landscape, and it’s beautiful,” Douglas says.
How to move a rose
A garden is an ever-changing work of art. Trees grow taller and provide more shade. A neighbor puts on an addition that makes your favorite rose struggle for sun. Or you want to relocate a rose to where its charms can be more easily enjoyed.
Loddie Dolinski, a senior horticulturalist for the Denver Botanic Gardens, who is in charge of moving several roses to a new rose ellipse garden, has felt your thorny dilemma. Here’s her advice on how to move a rose.
The best time is very early spring. But Dolinski knows that you can’t always do it at the best time. If you can’t, do it in the best way.
First, cut the rose back. “Down to about a foot tall is best,” she says.
Dig up as much of the root ball as you can, slowly and gently, with the soil fairly moist so the job is easier. Pot up your cut-back, dug-up rose with good, fresh potting soil. If the roots are too large to fit in the pot, you can prune them back so that they’ll fit easier and won’t be damaged (a clean cut is better than a bad scrape).
Store your potted rose on the north side of a building to minimize temperature fluctuation. Water and check on it frequently; pots can dry out fast, especially in drying winds.
In the new location, dig a hole at least twice as wide as the root ball. Plant at the same depth as in the original location or an inch deeper. Dolinski says don’t go overboard on amending the soil in the new location, but do be sure to place a graft two inches below the soil surface. Water well; then put a layer of mulch or compost on top (not touching the canes).
Keep an eye on it until it sprouts new leaves. If shoots come from below the graft, prune them out.
Susan Clotfelter, The Denver Post
Rose-growing primer
Matt Douglas of High Country Roses serves up his best tricks for keeping your roses in tiptop shape:
FAIRMOUNT CEMETERY’S OLD GARDEN ROSE TOUR
June 14 starting at 9 a.m. with guides Panayoti Kelaidis and Peggy Williams. $25; advance ticket sales only. Fairmount, Heritage and Old Garden Roses will be for sale before and after the event; the tour is about two hours long, with a presentation in the gazebo followed by a walking tour. fairmountheritagefoundation.org/rose-tour/ or 303-322-3895.
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