Rose Rosette … The Facts

April 23, 2014April 25, 2014 | Teresa / TheGardenDiary.com

If you grow roses, you are worried about the devastating disease called Rose Rosette. Tonight on Rose Chat Dr. Mark Windham joined with us to discuss his research on Rose Rosette. We discussed everything from identification and next steps to the research being done!

Don’t miss this very helpful episode of the Rose Chat podcast. Mark warns us not to believe everything we read on the internet, but gives us some sites he endorses for ongoing information. One of the Mark approved site is Star Roses and Plants … check the out here.

Listen to Mark’s podcast here.

Tools of the Trade

November 23, 2013November 23, 2013 | Teresa / TheGardenDiary.com

My good friend, Wendy Tilley, TheRoseGardener.com, and her husband, Ryan, have a garden of 350 roses and a business of caring for 85 rose gardens in the Atlanta area. So, they made it their goal to find gardening tools to make their job easier, more fun and give them the ability to be gardeners for a long, long time. This goal led them to some wonderful products for gardeners. Some of these products I already have and highly endorse, and others are high on my Christmas list. (Hey Santa!)

First up is a product that I’ve used for more than 20 years–

Harlane rose markers... — Harlane rose markers…

Harlane Plant Labels … read all about them here.

Barnel Pruners

Blade features include high carbon sword steel produced with a hard chrome finish and cold forged blade process.
Anodized finish repels sap.
Pressure injection die cast handles/body.
Drop forged heavy duty steel handles/body.
Self oiling center bolt for ease of maintenance.
Patented two-position lock for reduced effort.
“Auto-Unlock” – squeeze handles to automatically unlock shear.
Ergonomic TPR (thermoplastic rubber) non-slip grips.
Rotating handle reduces fatigue.

Bionic Gloves...

Bionic technology was first developed for hockey gloves, and evolved to batting gloves, catcher’s mitts and first-base mitts.

This technology is available in garden classic, garden extended-wear, driving/dress, golf and heavy duty gloves.

And, they are machine washable! Read more.

Easy Arrangers … Grids that fit over the top of vases. I have these and they really work! For more details, read on.

Wendy has many other great products for gardeners like the Muletto garden cart and even cute little rose purses!

Check them out here.

ROSE CHAT RADIO GUEST…

I had the pleasure of talking with Wendy on the Rose Chat Podcast. To hear all about Wendy, how she and Ryan got started growing roses, their products and garden advice, listen here.

WENDY SIGHTINGS…

Wendy travels around the South East to garden shows and holiday markets. Click here for Wendy’s schedule. You can also find Wendy on Facebook (here) and Twitter @thegarose.

A Rose A Day: Drifts

June 25, 2013June 23, 2013 | Teresa / TheGardenDiary.com

Today you are going to see 3 of my favorite roses–Peach Drift, Coral Drift and Apricot Drift.

As with all the roses in the Drift collection, these roses are amazingly disease resistant and small enough to fit into most any garden whether in a container, in the front of a border or in one of your nooks or crannies of the garden. I love to use them in front of my roses that have more sporadic bloom cycles.

These beauties are ever blooming so they give you season-long beauty!

Drift roses come in other colors too… check them out here.

These roses are so beautiful and easy that I love to give them as gifts to new rose gardeners!

RED DRIFT ROSES……

For information on Red Drift, read on.

A Rose A Day: Julia Child

June 4, 2013June 14, 2013 | Teresa / TheGardenDiary.com

Julia Child is a buttery yellow power blooming floribunda.

This beauty grows to about 2.5′ high and wide in my garden, but is only a two years old. Next year it may reach the 3′ the catalogs describe.

I first fell in love with this rose when Chris (redneckrosarian.com) shared and shared and shared pictures of his beautiful Julia’s. So I succumbed to rose envy.

This 2006 All-America Rose Selections winner did not disappoint … it produces very full fragrant blooms all summer long!

And, you know what I think about yellow in the garden … IT BRINGS THE SUNSHINE IN!

On Becoming a Rose Exhibitionist…

February 5, 2013February 9, 2013 | Teresa / TheGardenDiary.com

I have many new roses coming this spring and several of them are roses that have been recommended as roses I “need” to have if I’m going to become an exhibitionist…

So, since I plan to take the plunge, I decided to start out with some of the best…

FRANCIS MEILLAND HYBRID TEA

Star Roses and Plants award winning rose! Here’s how they describe it…

Francis Meilland® is a tall Hybrid Tea rose with a very large bloom, good exhibition form and strong fragrance. It is a multiple award winner in Europe for disease resistance as well as esthetics. It is one of the first Hybrid Tea roses to win the prestigious ADR contest in Germany. 2013 AARS winner.

This remarkable rose bears the name of a remarkable rose breeder, in honor of his 100th birthday.

My friend, Chris, The Redneck Rosarian, says this rose grew to about 9ft in his garden last year. Wo…. Now the big decision is where to plant the two I purchased from Edmunds!

Tall, disease resistance, beautiful fragrance and beautiful form … I can practically see a ribbon on my entry!

GEMINI HYBRID TEA

The picture of this rose in the Edmunds catalog plus all the raves from those who grow this rose made it very difficult to resist.

Here’s what Edmunds has to say about this beauty…

Creamy white with a coral edge on perfectly formed blooms. You won’t have to look at your horoscope to see if you are a winner with this rose as every flower seems to have perfect form. Its color will intensify as it ages and you will find it with long cutting stems and terrific dark green leaves to offset the flowers. Gemini signifies twins so you will probably want to buy it in quanities of two.

A must have for all exhibitors. It wins often.

I ask you, could you resist??

IT’S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR…

This time of year hope springs eternal and all of us rose gardeners “know” that this will be the year. Any “issues” from last year have been forgotten and this year, well, it’s gonna be special… no more than a touch of blackspot, no drought, no thrips and certainly no more than a couple of Japanese Beetles. Add to that — big luscious blooms that the judges just can’t pass by!

I have a few more roses on my list that I’ll share a little later. In the meantime, do you have any exhibition quality roses, you think I might “need”? Please share.

And, if you are a “rose exhibitionist,” please leave me at least one tip.

Fingers crossed…

The Charm of Rugosa Roses

May 16, 2011May 23, 2015 | Teresa / TheGardenDiary.com

Technically rugosa roses are species roses native to eastern Asia, but to me they are a bit of heaven on earth.

I have 17 (or so) rugosas: Hansa, Roseraie de l’Hay named for the French rose garden of the same name, Blanc Double de Coubert, Theresa Bugnet, Bell Poitevine and Moje Hammarberg. When these roses are blooming our entire garden is filled with their beautiful fragrance. If someone new visits our garden during this time, the first question is always, What is that?

In addition to beauty and fragrance, the upside to rugosa roses… they are tough, trouble free and need very little maintenance. . Their rough (rugose), tough leaves make them resistant to disease and pests. But you need some room because these beauties grow to be around 5′ X 6′ in my garden. The exception to this in my garden is Moje Hammarberg who is about 3 X 4. An extra bonus … rugosas produce large red-orange rose hips that are very high in Vitamin C and I am told make great jelly. We just let the bird enjoy them.

My favorite rugosa is Roseraie de l’Hay because it is a good repeat bloomer. Many of the rugosas do repeat bloom, but there is nothing like the spring fireworks!