It's easy to spot the low-maintenance roses of yesterday. They're the ones that are still here, planted by some long-gone gardener, growing and blooming even as new families—and interest in gardening—come and go. In my rural Ohio township 'Harison's Yellow' is one such rose, blooming early each spring near the front porch of almost every 19th-century farmhouse, often before the lilacs finish. Poke around in the foundation shrubbery surrounding many of the Victorian mansions in town and you will almost always find a tough pink damask rose, perhaps 'La Ville de Bruxelles', which enjoyed impressive circulation in this part of Ohio. In the tracts of homes built after World War II you might not find 60-year-old 'Peace' bushes, but 'The Fairy' will almost certainly be there, a thicket of tangled branches still covered in tiny powderpuff blooms each summer.
Today we have houses sprouting in the fields where corn and spelt once grew. This year's new development follows a landscaping formula that provides each new house with, in addition to imported turf, a 'Crimson King' maple, a 'Cleveland Select' pear, three 'Gold Mound' spireas, a circle of 'Stella de Oro' daylilies, and a 'Knock Out' rose.
Breeding Survivors
It's hard to compete with daylilies and spirea. The rose world may finally be shifting on its axis. Instead of seeking easier ways to grow a plant that can be difficult—by marketing them in boxes, for example, that take all of the thinking out of planting, or developing more effective chemical sprays—the rose industry has finally turned its attention to creating roses that are truly trouble-free.
Witness the legions of pink-potted Flower Carpet roses sold at home-improvement and discount stores. Even indifferent or poorly trained store personnel cannot kill the roses in this series. No water? No problem. Standing in water? No problem. Pot tipped over? They grow anyway. Planted in a real garden by someone who will love them, Flower Carpet roses don't look back. In principle, the series, which includes pink, coral, gold, red, yellow and white versions, provides abundant small blooms on a compact, glossy-leaved plant. 'Appleblossom Flower Carpet' is a pale mutation of the original deep pink 'Flower Carpet', but the others are independent creations, some only distantly related to the original. In my garden, the pink and red Flower Carpets bloom more profusely than the yellow and gold ones, and are less likely to show any blackspot.
While the Flower Carpets are often called "groundcover" roses, one should not expect them to smother weeds. In a northern climate, they will not give total coverage if planted on greater than 15-inch centers. The Flower Carpets fit well at the front of a border or alongside paths, and can fill any difficult-to-reach area where height is not required. Their glossy leaves hold their own when there isn't a lot of bloom. Unlike some roses with enhanced winter hardiness, the Flower Carpets withstand heat well. They are all sold on their own roots, and gardeners have discovered that they are very easy to propagate that way.
It isn't surprising that the Flower Carpet roses were developed in Germany. German gardeners face strict environmental regulations and cannot use fungicide sprays routinely sold over the counter in the United States. German breeders have responded to this challenge, and almost all recent German rose introductions come with outstanding disease resistance. Commendable examples include 'Home & Garden' and 'Heaven on Earth', floribundas with large sprays of big blooms in clear pink and peach, respectively, and Gelber Engel, a vigorous yellow floribunda arriving at shrub proportions by the end of the season. For voluptuous, low-maintenance cut flowers, it would be hard to beat the rich pink hybrid tea Parole, and the new Golden Gate may really be the ideal yellow climbing rose for all climates.
All Sorts
In the genetics of roses, fragrance is linked to disease susceptibility. So as breeders work to improve disease resistance, fragrance is often lost. David Austin has solved this problem in The Mayflower. At one garden in Britain it is famously planted under a blackspotty old climber, whose diseased leaves rain down upon it to no obvious effect. In my own garden The Mayflower is a tough small shrub, more wiry than elegant, with richly fragrant soft pink blooms that appear regularly throughout the summer. In further proof that Austin has arrived at disease resistance by a road less taken, its foliage lacks the glossy sheen of the German-bred disease-resistant roses.
Of the nearly 1500 different roses I now grow, only one has never shown any sign of any disease in my garden. Baby Love offers cheerful yellow single-petaled flowers on a compact shrublet. Its rounded habit makes it ideal grafted as a half-standard (or tree rose) and it's perfectly happy in a large tub. Because it needs no spraying, Baby Love also works very well near vegetable gardens.
Baby Love received a gold medal from Britain's Royal National Rose Society when it was introduced in 1993, but has found more commercial success in the United States. The billowing apricot-pink shrub rose Colette, bred by Meilland of France, is another example of a low-maintenance rose that has found its greatest fame far from home. And the Canadian Explorer roses, bred from Rosa rugosa and R. kordesii, provide low-maintenance rose solutions for gardeners north and south of the border. Some, such as 'William Baffin' and 'John Cabot' can reach mammoth proportions. Pink 'Lambert Closse' mimics hybrid tea form on a bush that stays in bounds, and currant red 'Champlain' has an attractive low, spreading habit and a real eagerness to bloom.
The Future
Will all of the bright pink Knockout roses planted around all of the new houses of 2006 still be around a generation from now? I imagine rose explorers of the future using the house to help identify the rose: "Three-car garage? Outdoor kitchen? The pink shrub rose must be Knockout." Or we may see its descendants have more staying power. Already, one of these, Home Run, seems a superior rose—loads of deep red, single-petaled blooms on an extraordinarily well-mannered low shrub. Every year more low-maintenance roses appear, making it easier to say yes to the world's favorite flower. Of course, if you prefer rose growing to remain a challenge, there are still thousands of varieties that won't let you down.
From Horticulture Magazine