Roses have a bad reputation for being difficult to grow and maintain. This may be true for modern roses that you often see at the floral shop. The plants that those long stem roses come from weren’t bred to look good in the garden. They were bred to, well, have long stems with a particular flower shape and look good at the florist. When you choose varieties that are appropriate for your area as Mother Nature would, antique roses are very easy to maintain. And being evergreen, they reward you with year-round beauty.
As previously mentioned in my family perennial garden blog post, a perennial/herb garden is a great plan to start with as it is also very low maintenance. The hardest part was creating the initial garden layout – removing the bermuda grass, digging up the rocks, creating the beds and filling it with new dirt, installing the drip irrigation, and laying the path with decomposed granite. Thereafter, my yearly maintenance calendar looked like this:
- January: mulch the beds
- mid-February: prune
- March: fertilize
- September: deadhead and fertilize though I don’t always do this every year
Of course, I weed throughout the year. It’s not that much of a chore since it’s kind of a family affair and the kids love hanging out in the garden. For the fertilizer, I use the Ladybug Brand John’s Recipe spray along with a small amount of dirt from our compost. I also add about 2 cups of coffee grounds per rose plant since they prefer a slightly more acidic soil. You can get used coffee grounds for free at Starbucks.
For the first two years, I did spray the roses with a mixture of 1 tbsp Ivory liquid soap to 1 gallon of water. Planting herbs along with the roses help deter the aphids and other pesky bugs and I haven’t sprayed since.
The following 3 books are very useful sources for growing roses:
- Landscaping With Antique Roses (”Fine Gardening” Books)
- The Organic Rose Garden
- Roses in the Southern Garden
If you’ve ever wanted to grow roses but were put off by the work involved, I hope you give antique roses a try this year. For inspiration, visit the Antique Rose Emporium. April in Central Texas is a great time for roses. This year has been especially good given the northern Pacific-like weather and absence of many pests that seem to plague the springtime blooms!
