Many local friends have asked for advice on roses they can find close by. As you know many of my roses are modern shrub roses that fall into the easy-care variety so those will be the ones I talk about today.
During this season I keep a watchful eye on local garden centers and box stores to see the roses they have coming in. I wish we could meet up and shop together but since that is not a possibility, here’s what I’m finding…
COUNTRY HARMONY GARDEN CENTER
Country Harmony (in Brownsburg) has a new to me series called NITTY GRITTY ROSES in red, white, yellow, and this fantastic peach rose! These roses grow 3′ x 4′ and bloom through the growing season. Look at this fantastic peach beauty!
From the Monrovia website about this series…
Not just a pretty face, this very durable, own-root, fuss-free groundcover rose produces an abundance of lovely blooms while offering excellent disease resistance and a self-cleaning, easy-to-care for habit. The double blooms provide exquisite color, adding great low-maintenance curb appeal to the landscape.
TRUE BLOOM SERIES
Four years ago I saw the beautiful roses in the TRUE BLOOM series while attending a National ARS Conference in San Diego. Since then I have been looking forward to seeing them locally. This year Country Harmony has them! So many beautiful ones.
The TRUE BLOOM roses were hybridized by my great rose friend Ping Lim. You can listen to Ping’s life in roses on the Rose Chat Podcast… HERE.
LOWES
EASY ELEGANCE SERIES
Many of my favorite roses come from the EASY ELEGANCE series, Music Box, My Girl, Calypso, and Champagne Wishes. However, I think any that you chose in this series would be a good choice.
PETIT PRINCE
For several years I have been hearing about this wonderful rose from my good friend, Paul Zimmerman. I decided this was the year to search for it and add it to my garden. GUESS WHAT… Lowes made my job easy… they have it and for $14.97… Yes, I bought 3. THE FRAGRANCE IS OUT OF THIS WORLD! Truly strong old rose fragrance. The size is 4.5′ W X 4′ H.
Here’s a quote from the man himself… could you resist??
“Petit Prince is simply put an astonishing rose. It first came to me at my former nursery Ashdown Roses from Arnaud Delbard to introduce into the United States. I have had a grouping of 8-10 bushes in my garden for the last 15 years. It has the great fragrance of the mauve roses with none of the diebacks. It is one of the most disease resistant roses in my no spray garden in the upstate of South Carolina. Even in summer when other roses defoliate this one does not. The dark, glossy green foliage remains unfazed. The blooms are a beautiful mauve with a perfume that can be smelled from 10’ away. This is a rose no garden should be without. Hardy to zone 5. – Paul Zimmerman
See Petit Prince growing in Paul’s garden below…
LAVENDER CRUSH CLIMBER
A new to me fragrant climber that looks promising is LAVENDER CRUSH. Lavender, climber and fragrance in the same description = SOLD. I only brought one home. Not a big investment at $14.95.
SOL DESIRE
If you walk into Lowes soon this one is in full bloom and will get your attention!
I talked with Tyler of Certified Roses today and he says this rose, along with the others I mentioned should do very well in our Zone 5b garden.
SEASON TO SEASON BRAND
This label was new to me so I did a bit of investigation and found this is another company from the great folks at J Berry Nursery who I am very familiar! 👍🏻
OSO EASY URBAN LEGEND
This pretty PROVEN WINNER groundcover rose has been almost bulletproof in my garden. I even planted it in semi-shade!
Well, that’s all for now. I have 4 roses coming from Proven Winners in the next day or two. We’ll talk about those next week.
Happy gardening and garden shopping! 🛒
Let me know what you find for your garden!
Thanks for you recommendations. I’m wondering what you are taking out to make room for these new roses. Or are you diggning a new bed?
Well, no new area but I am taking out a couple and moving others around!! 😁
I found a Petite Prince in full bloom. Lovely! Thank you for your recommendations!
Oh I’m so head! The fragrance!!
It is gratifying to see that floribunda roses remain popular. The modern cultivars, although easier to grow, are relatively boring. Hybrid tea roses are still my favorite, although I do not recommend them for those who are just getting started with roses. I do not mind the extra work, or that the plants are not so pretty. I just like their bloom. Some are from my Mother’s rose garden. I planted them in the mid 1980s. I brought them here when I needed to remove them, and they continue to perform.
All beautiful roses! It is so nice to see you giving a critique of roses for your local growers!
There’s been quite a buzz … one or two of the varieties sold out today. 😁
Thank you so much for sharing these rose photos and the sources where they can be purchased. Mother’s Day in our area of Newport News, VA, is the BIG sales day for roses. My roses are loaded with buds and a few blooms. It will look like a Rose Parade in my yard when they do bloom as I have never seen so many buds before (for example, Gourmet Popcorn). We have continued to have a gorgeous and glorious Spring this season as I have lilacs which smell divine, weigela, rhododendron, and still some pink Dreamboat camellias in bloom now. Also, a beautiful and large star-shaped flower blooming on a vine and lavender orchids in bloom (cannot remember the names but have them written down). And I recently planted some bright orange Gazanias which are so neat. They are really African Daisies, and the flowers close up in the evening and on cloudy days. There is a named for this characteristic, nyctinasty. They do not “go to sleep” at night as some flowers do. So, I really learned something about botany this past week. We have some tomato plants with flowers already in the ground and a few more that need to get planted. I do have a Mister Lincoln rose which has the BEST rose fragrance ever. But my dwarf lilacs’ sweet fragrance is so divine right now as my Mister Lincoln rose is not in bloom. I planted a yellow Sunsprite rose and read that its fragrance is like cinnamon toast and/or licorice. Happy gardening!