If you’re a gardener who has never grown roses you’ve probably been a little intimidated by some of the terminology and the things that you’ve heard. Well they’re not intimidating. So, welcome to the wonderful world of roses.
I always feel there’s two kinds of gardeners out there those who have never grown roses because they were too scared to try or maybe you had a bad rose you didn’t succeed and you don’t want to try it again well here’s the thing I’ve grown thousands of roses during my lifetime most of them sustainable. I give them no more care than any other plant in my garden and I’ve had wonderful success. I know lots of other people who have had as well and also when you’re dealing with a company like Jackson and Perkins. They research roses from all over the globe and the wonderful thing about that is you can buy them with confidence knowing you’re getting a really really great rose.
Now let’s talk about though some of those things that you heard and I know they’re scary there are the things you talked about like the hard difficult pruning and the complicated feeding program you really don’t need those okay you need just basic plant care those complicated programs or for exhibitors exhibitors work hard they’re talented Rose growers but they’re after one very specific thing the long stem hybrid tea to exhibit in a rose show you want to plant with lots of flowers that’s going to be beautiful it’s got to be fragrant and bloom from spring to fall all the videos that we do into this series with Jackson and Perkins cover a lot more in detail planting watering feeding preparing the soil and you’re going to see some of these products that you’re going to need in there we’ll talk about those more specifically but this video is to introduce you to roses now we’re going to get started by very simply talking about different kinds of roses there’s a lot of different kinds of roses out there well we’re going to cover six basic kinds of roses that you can use in your garden and what’s important is that you understand how they grow because that’s going to determine where you’re going to use them what you’re going to buy first are hybrid teas hybrid teas grow upright five to six feet they bear flowers at the end of long stems usually a single flower per stem they’re probably what you think of when you think of the classic florist rose the next kind of floribundas.
Floribundas are wonderful rounded bushes bearing flowers and clusters lots and lots of blooms in little blue machines really wonderful for like mid border next kind of shrub roses they’re exactly what they sound like they’re shrubs they’re used to Bush with lots and lots of flowers on them the heights can vary so make sure you know what you’re buying before you place your order for those kinds of roses next kind of ground covers they’re not true ground covers like a lawn or grass but they tend to grow very low and spread they’re also good for growing over banks spilling over walls even in a hanging basket climbing roses they can grow to great heights in fact climbers climb and Ramblers ramble and they can cover a house so again be aware of the signs you’re going to get but climbing roses add vertical interest to any garden out there the last kind are hedge roses like the Jackson and Perkins simplicity series they’re great for just that wonderful long hedge that bears flowers very easy to grow when you go to buy your roses there’s three things that I want you to think about.
Number one I want you to think about growth habit that’s how you buy a rose just like any other plant for example if you’re going to buy a foundation plant you wouldn’t pick a pansy because there’s a nice little blue flower no you’d pick something that goes into more of a hedge we just talked about the different ways roses grow the different sizes in Heights so back of the border you want to tall a rose front of the board or maybe more of a ground cover kind of rose best way to do this is simply to go to Jackson and Perkins dot com start browsing through their roses they’ve got them group different ways start looking at the heights and the size and the growth habit you want then find the flower that you’re looking for and if you’re really not sure which rose to buy just contact Jackson and Perkins they’ve got horticulturalist standing by next thing you know encounter the two different ways roses are grown they’re grown basically as an own root rose or is a grafted or budded Rose which is just a form of grafting from your standpoint the difference is very simply that this Rose the own root Rose is the same below the ground as it is above the ground the grafted Rose is grafted onto an under stock the reason they do it this way is because some roses grow better grafted and some grow better on their own root from your standpoint it doesn’t make any difference don’t worry about it.
Jackson Perkins continually does research to discover which ones go better grafted and which ones go better own root so just buy the one that you want and don’t worry about that because Jackson Perkins has done all the worrying for you the last thing you’re going to encounter is the Rose is sold at a bare root or it’s sold as a container plant from your standpoint either way it’s going to do fine but here’s just my advice to you if you’ve got experience as a gardener go with the bare root or the container if you’re little inexperienced and a little new to gardening and a little intimidated by all of this go with the container it’s an easier product to work with right out of the gate but you’re going to succeed with either one of them.
The last thing I want to talk about in this video is what I call the anatomy of a rose the different parts of the roses you’re going to hear these terms throughout the videos books that you read or whatever the case may be so it helps to kind of know what some of these things mean we’re going to start with the bud eye what is a bud eye very simply on the cane it’s the swelling’s that you see here on the cane this is where the new cane or new growth will come from there also can be found at the base of a set of leaves that’s what the bud is now one of the important things to understand about a bud eye is if this is the bud eye and it’s right here it’s going to grow this way when I cut above it it always grows in the direction it’s facing you can use this to manipulate the bush into growing to growth habit that you want which is that nice rounded habit so this is the center of my plant anytime I deadhead which is cutting off an old flower.
I prune or I trim I go to a but I that faces away from the center of the plant that way I know my growth is going to constantly go out to different parts of the plant so that basically covers a bud eye another term you’re going to hear a lot is bud Union what is a bud Union it’s this part of the rose right there this part that you can see this is the root stock of the shank they took a piece of the rose they wanted they budded it onto the root stock right there and this is where the rose then grow the root stock used to be here they nipped it off the term bug union is used quite often when it comes to planting and the planting video you’ll hear me talk about bury the bug union below the soil so this is the bud union on a own root plant while technically doesn’t have a bud Union it’s just still the same part of the plant where the Canes grow out of.
so either where its own root or whether its grafted when you hear me talking about bud Union this is the part of the plant that I’m talking about basal break is another term you’re going to encounter that’s not to be confused with a Buster break which is a very different kind of thing a basal break is very simply a new cane that grows from the base of the plant you generally find these right after you prune because the act of pruning stimulates that new growth this is great because that’s part of the cycle of the rose the new canes will replace the old canes and the newer fresher canes are the ones that flower better so if we see a basal break time to celebrate have a basal party you’ve probably heard a rose hips as reference for like rose hip tea good source of vitamin C.
That little piece of trivia rose hips were used by sailors way back when when they had long sea voyages to prevent scurvy but what is a rose if these are rose hips right here they are simply nothing more than old flowers this is where a bloom was they’re actually seed pods inside of these are actual rose seeds so if you cut them open and plant them you might or might not get something to grow but it won’t be the rose that you have here because they’ve been hybridized so much so that in essence is what a rose hip is my advice is towards the end of the season leave them on the plant that’s signifying to the plant that is time to go dormant and go to sleep before winter comes Plus rose hips are incredible food source for birds and other great beneficials for your garden.
Another term you hear often in roses is five leaflet leaf set what is that simply this it’s a set of leaves or leaf set with five leaves one two three four five where it joins the base of the cane this term is used in offensive reference to deadheading deadhead above a five leaflet leaf set that’s because that’s where the growth is generally strong enough to support the next stem that’s going to bear the next flower so deadheading or cutting above a five leaf leaf set is never a bad idea I hope this video has taken some of the mystique out of growing roses and I hope now it’s a gardener you understand they really are nothing more than flowering plants and that’s all the attention and all the care that they need I know you are probably going to have some more questions and pop over to Facebook on the Jackson and Perkins Facebook page horticulturists are standing by to answer your question give you tips give you encouragement make sure to check out our other videos and from Jackson and Perkins this is Paul Zimmerman and thanks for spending time in the garden with us today
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