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.
