Dressing the foot of the roses

Roses are the star plants of the garden in spring, and even longer for the remontant varieties. By choosing wisely, you can dress the base of your rose bushes in a durable way, creating a splendid setting for a good part of the year.

Why dress the base of roses?

Some shrub roses can become a little thin at the base, especially as they get older. Medium-sized plants will fill in this visual space and enhance the beauty of the roses, while taking over from the blooms during slower periods.  Another advantage: they will shade the base of the shrub, keeping the soil cooler for longer.

Some plants even provide protection against disease and pests, while others create a contrast of colors or textures, so don't be afraid to plant!

The best plants to dress up the base of roses

The perennial geranium is undoubtedly a first choice plant to dress up the base of bush roses. Very hardy, it can remain in place in the garden without fear of frost, and comes in many varieties. Among them, 'Johnsons Blue', the best known, whose deep blue color enhances yellow, pink or white roses. Also in blue shades, think of campanulas, these robust and easy to grow plants that are at home in most gardens, or nepeta, which blooms abundantly from May to November in lavender blue spikes.

Very graphic, large irises accompany the flowering of roses in spring, in beds or in mixed borders; their colors, whose palette is very wide, adapt to all shades of roses!

Lupines also work wonders at the foot of roses, especially varieties with large white spikes that will contrast perfectly with red roses. Here again, you can vary the pleasures depending on the color of the roses, creating scenes with similar shades of pink and mauve, or on the contrary, creating flashy contrasts with orange and blue.

Think also of penstemon to give a little wild side to your beds. These very easy to grow perennials bloom for many months, in clusters of bells, sometimes pastel, sometimes bright, depending on the variety. There are so many varieties that you won't have any trouble finding a color that goes perfectly with your roses. In the same style, the gaura, gives a country note from May to October, all without any particular maintenance or effort from the gardener. White, pale pink or fuchsia, gauras bring lightness to beds or flowerbeds.

Gypsophila and its myriad of small, vaporous flowers, whose pure white color is a perfect match for all shades and styles of roses, is widely used by florists to enhance rose bouquets. Do the same in the garden!

To combine business with pleasure, plant decorative alliums at the foot of your roses. They will protect them from cryptogamic diseases as well as from certain parasites while magnifying them thanks to their large mauve pompons.

Finally, think of plants with decorative foliage such as heuchera, which will be happy in the shade of your roses, forming splendid shades of color, or santolina, mugwort and lavender with silver foliage, which are always very easy to combine with all the colors of roses.

History of the rose and the rose bush

Throughout the northern hemisphere, the history of the rose goes back to the dawn of time. Rightly the queen of the garden, the rose is a jewel that gardeners have patiently fashioned from generation to generation.

According to scientists, the first roses appeared nearly 35 million years ago. Although little is known about these early specimens, numerous writings from antiquity show that the queen of flowers was already appreciated by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. At that time, only a white variety was cultivated mainly for its medicinal virtues.

According to historical accounts, roses were also cultivated in China about 5000 years ago. These flowers originated in Central Asia and spread throughout the northern hemisphere without ever crossing the equator.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, when the crusades were stirring hearts and passions, armed travelers brought back new varieties of rose from the Near East, including the mythical Damascus rose, which from the 13th century made the fortune of Provins in the Paris region. This rose was originally planted on the island of Samos in honor of the goddess Aphrodite. Later, it was honored in Rome with the goddess of love, Venus. It was at this time that the cultivation of the rose in France really began with gallica officinalis (Rose des Apotyhicaires). This variety brought back from the Holy Land was first cultivated for its medicinal virtues before being appreciated for its beauty in the garden. It was from this variety that rose oil was made in the Middle Ages.

In France, the most cultivated old roses were then the Gallic also called Roses of France (Rose de Provins, Charles de Mills, Tuscany) but also varieties of white roses also called Alba (Céleste, Jeanne d'Arc, Cuisse de Nymphe), Damask roses (Félicité Hardy, Quatre Saisons, Rose du Roi), Centfeuilles roses (Rosa Centifolia, Rose des Peintres, Petite de Hollande) and finally Moussus roses (Moussu commun, Salet). All these varieties had common features: developed in large bushes, they usually presented a unique and abundant flowering. Each very fragrant flower was composed of numerous petals varying from pure white to dark purple. Only the Damask rose (Four Seasons) was a remontant. It was the origin of the first remontant roses in the West.

In 1700, the arrival of roses from China and Japan revolutionized rose growing in France. Within a few years, the number of varieties exploded to the delight of European gardeners, who had fallen under the spell of this bewitchingly fragrant plant.

Many years after the crusades and the introduction of varieties from the Near East in the West, a discovery upset the horizon of the rose growers of the time. Around the year 1700, exotic varieties such as roses from India, China or Japan were added to the now known varieties we mentioned in the first part of our history of roses. The arrival of these Chinese varieties took place via the United Kingdom, the United States and Reunion Island. These remontant specimens opened the door to blooms from June to October.

The first crosses between the already well-established roses and these newcomers produced non-remontant varieties such as Bourbon roses (Mme Pierre Oger, Souvenir de la Malmaison), Hazelnut roses (Rose Noisette, Desprez with yellow flowers), Tea roses (Adam, Gloire de Dijon) but also remontant hybrids (Baronne Prévost, Reine des Violettes...).

Other varieties were also imported in the 18th century from Holland and Belgium, including the Centifolia rose or Rose Chou aux cent pétales. This last variety was quickly adopted by the perfumers of Grasse and gave birth in turn to the sparkling roses to the roses with lettuce leaves. At the beginning of the 18th century, botanists had listed all possible strains. Some spontaneous hybrids appeared such as Alba, Centifolia, Portland, Bourbon and the famous Tea Rose.

For a long time, rose growers were faced with a problem. These roses originating from hot countries could not stand the cold of Europe! To remedy this fragility, the rose growers of the time decided to proceed to hybridizations to create stronger and more vigorous roses. The fruit of these first hybridizations gave a tremendous impulse to the creation of hundreds of new varieties that are generally grouped under the name of old roses. This name includes no less than 10,000 varieties and cultivars, all of which have the particularity of having been created before 1920.

The propagation of roses by sowing

A fun experiment, the multiplication of roses by sowing is within everyone's reach. With a little patience you will obtain beautiful surprises!

To know before starting

The majority of roses sold on the market are grafted hybrids for a better resistance to diseases, parasites or unfavorable climates but also to combine the qualities of the two original plants. The sowing of these species may therefore give you a result absolutely different from the mother plant, thus offering you some nice surprises! As the rose is allogamous (i.e. cross-pollinated), you will most often obtain plants that are different from the original plant.

The seedling is very interesting for all those who want to try to obtain a new variety of rose by hybridization.

Harvesting the seeds

Always choose a healthy rose to collect your seeds;

• Pick the rose hips when they are mature, when they start to wilt and soften with a well disinfected pruning shears;
• let the rosehips dry in the open air and under cover for a few days before opening them;
• place the seeds in river sand to which you have added charcoal powder to avoid the development of cryptogamic diseases;
• Pour the seeds into a small paper envelope, write the name of the rose on it, and place the envelope in the vegetable bin of the refrigerator for at least one month (vernalization). The relative cold will trigger the 'awakening' of the seeds.

Sowing roses

• Fill a polystyrene box (like the ones you find at your fishmonger's) with a light mixture of 1/3 potting soil, 1/3 river sand and 1/3 peat moss. Add a handful of charcoal powder to this mixture;
• Pack the surface of the mixture and water to moisten the substrate;
• with a pencil, draw small furrows 10 cm apart;
• Place the seeds in the furrows, spacing them 5 cm apart;
• Then cover the seeds with half a centimeter of river sand;
• spray the surface gently to moisten it well without disturbing the seeds;
• place the box in the dark at a temperature lower than 10°C, but not frozen;
• install then the box under cold frame and keep the substrate slightly wet during all the period of germination.

And then?

Once the seedlings have 4 leaves, transplant into individual rose pots (deeper than wide). The substrate should be well drained and composed of good commercial potting soil, a little vermiculite, clay and chopped straw. Be sure to water your seedlings well and to add fertilizer during the growth period. The plantation in full ground could be envisaged in the autumn, two years after the sowing.

Planting a rose tree

How and when to plant a rose tree? It varies according to whether you buy it in a container or bare root.

When to plant a rose?

Containerized roses can be planted almost all year round, but for bare-root roses, the best time is in autumn.

In any case, avoid periods of frost.

How to plant a rose tree?

Dig a hole at least one and a half times wider than the root ball or the roots to put in it. The root ball must be comfortable in the hole. The roots need loose soil around them to grow properly.

Shorten the roots a little in the case of bare root roses, and prune them. Spread the roots over the entire hole.

Place well-decomposed manure in the bottom of the hole and place your rose in the center with the graft point at ground level.

Fill the hole with garden soil (roses like heavy soil so there is no need to add potting soil) well loosened so that it penetrates well between the roots. Pack the soil to bring it in contact with the roots and form a bowl.

Water abundantly after planting and bring water afterwards, especially during the dry season.

How to plant a climbing rose?

Move your rose bush about 20 cm away from its support and place the roots on the opposite side of the support.

The suppression of wildlings

Nowadays, most commercialized roses are obtained by grafting. However, on grafted subjects, nature sometimes tends to take over... Wildflowers can then appear at the base of the plant and it will be necessary to remove them.

What is a savage?

A wild rose is a rejection that can appear under the grafting point at the base of the plant. Wildings are regrowths of the rootstock from the collar of the rose or from the roots.

In the case of stem roses or weeping roses whose grafting point is located much higher on the trunk, the wild rose may appear directly on the main stem but always under the grafting point.

Be careful not to confuse wildings with "gourmands", the latter always appearing above the grafting point unlike the former which are always located below the grafting point.

Why does the rosebush emit wildings?

The majority of roses currently on the market are grafted from a variety chosen for its specific characteristics: beauty of the flower, perfume, color. This variety is then grafted onto a very vigorous rootstock in order to resist diseases, to support all kinds of soil and to tolerate various climatic conditions.

The rosebush thus obtained will combine the qualities of these two plants, but over time, it may prove to be unstable and the rootstock may take over.

Why eliminate wildings?

It is necessary to remove these shoots because if this is not done, the rootstock could take over, shamelessly suffocating the grafted variety. Your rosebush would then lose the characteristics that seduced you at the time of its acquisition and would be transformed into a wilder shrub, with an indeterminate habit and a flowering absolutely different from the one you had chosen.

How to eliminate wildflowers?

Take gloves and sharp, disinfected pruning shears.

First of all, clear the base of the foot at the level of the wild boar and cut this new growth as close as possible to its departure at the level of the roots. During this operation, as when planting a new subject, be careful not to injure the roots, which will be even more likely to form new shoots later on.

In the case of stem roses or weeping roses, remove all the lateral branches located under the grafting point flush with the main stem.

Pruning rose flowers

In full bloom in spring, roses offer an extraordinary show in the garden. Then the flowers fade one by one, and it is time to prune them. Why prune? How to do it the right way? Follow the guide...

Why is it necessary to prune faded roses?

A rose, when it fades, will turn into a fruit and produce seeds like most other plants, in order to ensure its reproduction. This stage will require a lot of energy from the rose, which, busy producing these famous seeds, will flower less. By pruning, the rosebush will regain its vigor and form new shoots that will soon bear beautiful roses, thus prolonging the blooming period for your greater pleasure.

You should also know that non-remontant roses bloom on the previous year's wood, so a well-practiced pruning will encourage the birth of new branches bearing flowers.

The other reason is more aesthetic: it is always a shame to see faded flowers that detract from the overall beauty of the shrub.

How to prune rose flowers?

Pruning is a much more important operation than one might think. It is very technical and requires a few precautions to be taken:

• always choose a well-sharpened and disinfected pruning shears;
• always choose sharp and disinfected pruning shears; always wear gloves, as we often forget that roses can not only injure but also transmit tetanus!
• Preferably proceed in the morning on a dry day, to give the wound time to dry before the night's humidity.

The cut will be made according to the length of the branch: the longer it is, the more important the pruning will be. To keep a harmonious and bushy shape to the roses, it is always preferable to prune low enough, contrary to the pruning practiced by the amateur gardener, who, believing he is doing the right thing, cuts just under the receptacle (bulging part located under the petals and joining the stem). Thus pruned, the stem will have very little chance to branch out and produce new shoots.

You will therefore have to proceed in the following way: you will notice by carefully observing the stem that directly under the faded flower, there is a leaf bearing three leaflets, further below it you will find a leaf bearing 5 leaflets.

Look at the axil of this leaf and you will see a dormant eye close to the stem. Cut at a bevel above this eye so that the upper point of the cut is half a centimeter above the eye. This way you will avoid rainwater running directly on the bud. A new stem will soon appear bearing one or more flowers.

Did you know that?

If you want to flesh out an etiolated subject you can cut lower but still above a leaf with an outward facing eye.