Hey everyone!

My husband would like for me to plant some rose bushes. I have never had a rose bush and to be quite honest I'm a little scared to try to grow any. My mom has never had any luck growing roses so I'm scared I'll have her brown thumb in regards to roses.

The area they will be planted: one section faces west and the other faces south. I love in zone 6a. I would prefer ones that have huge flowers. Not the baby roses and very aromatic.

What are your favorite roses?

If you are interested in grafted roses, I would recommend Palatine Roses.
https://palatineroses.com/rose...
For own root roses, I would go with Heirloom Roses but only the 1 gallon size, NOT the bands.
http://www.heirloomroses.com/
Here's a list of fragrant roses that have done well here in zone 6b. I have listed them as to whether they are grafted or own root.
Laguna climber - grafted
Dixieland Dixie (aka Lady Ashe) climber - own root
Grafin Diana (aka Dark desire) grandiflora - grafted
Quietness - shrub - own root
Westerland - shrub - own root
Electron - Hybrid Tea - grafted
Mister Lincoln - HT - grafted
Velvet Fragrance - HT - own root
Hot Cocoa - Floribunda - own root

Hi Beth ... to the Rose Forum.

I am not going to give you any recommendations simply because I am guessing that my climate is very different than yours.

Back in the day when your mother was trying to grow roses they marketed roses as if any rose would grow well in any climate. That is not true, so a LOT of people failed at growing roses. When you grow a rose that likes your climate, your soil and how you like to garden, if you start with a healthy plant, roses can grow like weeds.

Fragrance is a recessive gene in roses, so it's great if a rose is fragrant, but your first priority should be a healthy plant.

I am certain you don't know where to start. There are a lot of articles in the NGA archive.

click on LEARNING LIBRARY
click on BROWSE ALL ARTICLES
enter "roses" in the SEARCH field

and you will see a lot of blue live links to the articles. These articles can help you get a feel for growing roses. Many of the roses mentioned in the articles are no longer in commerce because two of the big distributors of roses, J & P and Weeks went bankrupt and are now under new ownership.

For more information like this:

https://garden.org/ideas/view/...

click on COMMUNITY
click on COMMUNITY IDEAS
enter "roses" in the SEARCH field.

You can view photos of roses in the rose database.

I am not suggesting you do all of your homework on your own. Looking at these articles and tips may help you discover you have more questions ...

Feel free to ask all the questions you want. Often people ask questions on the chat thread, too. Do whatever is comfortable for you.

btw .. Heirloom's instructions for growing bands needs to be updated. If you choose to go that direction, come back here and we'll help you out.

to the rose forum Beth!

Thanks for the advice. My hubby swung by Aldi to check out their specality items and saw they had rose bushes. We've gotten bulbs and seeds from them and they have all worked out. Along with my two raised garden beds are from them. So for $5.50 a bush we couldn't turn it down for our first effort on roses. I won't feel too bad if they don't work out we would be out just $20. So my Saturday got even busier: transplanting daylilies and now planting roses.

Those are all classic favorites. Good luck with them!

RoseBlush1 said:
Back in the day when your mother was trying to grow roses they marketed roses as if any rose would grow well in any climate. That is not true, so a LOT of people failed at growing roses. When you grow a rose that likes your climate, your soil and how you like to garden, if you start with a healthy plant, roses can grow like weeds.

Agreed.

I grow most things in pots (rent and move a lot....it's just easier), usually 1/3 coconut coir, 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite (or perlite for bulbs). Mine triple or more in size whil my mother's in the ground in not so great soil don't look well for a year or two.

Hi Beth, Welcome.
These rose cultivars are certainly old favorites. Keep them very well watered until the canes start growing. Then allow the surface of the soil to dry out between waterings. I like the soil recipe provided by Protoavis because it is rich in organic materials, it provides good root aeration, and it retains moisture well. Other recipes that achieve these ends will work, too. In any case, I'd suggest giving the new roses supplemental water through their first year, at least. As one of those people Lyn refers to who killed a lot of roses on the east coast, I would consider using a biological spray like Actinovate ( a biological control) to prevent blackspot.

BPadilla said:Hey everyone!

My husband would like for me to plant some rose bushes. I have never had a rose bush and to be quite honest I'm a little scared to try to grow any. My mom has never had any luck growing roses so I'm scared I'll have her brown thumb in regards to roses.

The area they will be planted: one section faces west and the other faces south. I love in zone 6a. I would prefer ones that have huge flowers. Not the baby roses and very aromatic.

What are your favorite roses?

What is your soil like.

Dig a hole at least a foot in diameter and six inches deeper than planting depth, if you have room make the hole closer t two feet wide.
I would use some good bagged garden soil, or dig a hole some where else and use fresh soil at least three inches below the surface, amend it well then use it to replace the dirt you removed.
Check hole to see how well the water drains.
Unless it just sits there and does not drain, after you plant water it well.
I use a Vitamin B compound when planting, including soaking the unbagged roses in water containing said solution before planting.
I also submerge roses in a solution of Seranade or some similar biological black spot killer, and pour the water in the hole .
I never buy from Amazon but here are some brands of various types of root boosters out there:
https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=U...

Beth,

I'm certainly far from being a rose expert. Other than Knockout roses, I started growing roses in the spring of 2016. At that time I ordered all my roses from Palatine and Chamblee (both excellent online sources). I chose tough cultivars recommend in Peter Kukielski's excellent book, "Roses without Chemicals": Savannah, Beverly, Dark Desire and Wedding Bells. So I feel that I started my rose growing with an advantage (disease resistant cultivars and strong, well maintained plants from reliable growers).

I have never tried growing bargain roses like the ones you are trying. That is because a friend of mine tried growing a lot of roses from WalMart and eventually concluded that they had to be considered annuals because none of them survived over the winter in her zone 6b garden.

To grow my roses, I soaked the bare-root roses from Palatine overnight and then planted them in deep and wide holes (2' wide by 1.5' deep) filled with amended soil (compost, planting mix and soil from the hole) and watered regularly. I live on top of a hill, so drainage is not a problem for me. If drainage is a problem for you, then soil amendments might differ for you.

At the end of the season, I mulched the roses with lots of chopped leaves, and all came through the winter successfully.

This spring I am becoming more adventurous, i.e., planting some cultivars with less disease resistance (Good as Gold and The Poet's Wife) in addition to some that are rated as very disease-resistant: Sunny Sky, Winter Sun, Polar Express and Olivia Rose Austin).

You can go the website for "Help Me Find" (HMF) to learn more about the cultivars you have, including the ratings of others who have grown those roses: http://www.helpmefind.com

It specializes in roses and peonies and is an excellent resource.

Best wishes for a successful rose-growing experience. If these roses don't perform well for you, don't be discouraged. If that happens, you might try reading "Roses withoug Chemicals" and then select some tough roses from that book.

The location is in the flower bed on the side of my house. It seems while I was digging there to plant my daylilies my soil on that side was a bit more sandy. I figured I would have a bit more clay but I was wrong. This was to answer your questions @RpR.

The side of the house can be good, so long as it's not the north side. A few roses will grow in shade but none will bloom well. Also, try not to plant too close to the house, underneath the eaves can be too dry unless the rose gets supplemental water from the downspout.

Sand can be difficult for many roses. I'd recommend making up nearly 1/3 the soil with good mulch or some other organic material (coir, compost, etc.) and adding a few cups of clay (cat litter) Then mulch the top of the soil so it retains water in hot, sunny weather.