I am curious if anyone has experience with OSO easy roses. I checked the database and appreciate the info, but didn't see any photos. (I haven't added any photos either, my bad...actually my busy).

I like the pictures of Peachy Cream and Paprika on hmf and elsewhere. Fragrant Spreader may work in a spot of my garden, but it would depend how much it spreads.

I already have Meilland "groundcover" roses that are much bigger than expected. I love them, but they are getting huge - 6' canes as thick as my index finger in their second year. I cut them back a bit this year. I was thinking about training them on a tuteur, but I would have to buy/make one first. Oso Easy Cherry Pie -Meilland Candia looks like it would be nice planted in front of said tuteur, unless it gets huge also. My Meilland groundcover rose is my most disease resistant rose - completely disease free close to the ground in a no spray garden bed.

It seems that these roses have been around a while, but I haven't found many reviews on them. Elsewhere in this forum, Blissful Garden ( I think) mentioned that she prefers the drift roses. Her OSO easy roses got bigger than expected. She is in a much warmer zone than I am, so I don't know if the same would happen here.

Hi, Andi. Nice to see you back. I can't tell you a thing about the Oso Easy roses because I've never grown any. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen any. My local nurseries don't carry them.

I'm not thrilled with the drift roses. I have Pink Drift, Apricot Drift, and Peach Drift, and they're just like minis in my garden, not like groundcover roses at all. I've had them for years and they still form a small mound, not exceeding 12 inches in width. Maybe they need a cooler climate to behave like groundcover roses.

The best groundcover rose I have is Red Ribbons. It's only about 2 feet tall and spreads out to about 5 feet.

There is a coop including shrubs and oso easy roses on another site. I was thinking about trying them.

Nice to be back. I hadn't been feeling well this fall. I am trying to get things done now that I was unable to do then. We have been having warmer than usual weather this winter, so I have made some progress.

Out of control roses are my specialty; I must try them!

Andi - They're used pretty extensively here. Those & the stupid Knockouts (boring). They're pretty hardy here, mound up about 2' by 4' across, are in constant bloom. But they get to be SOOOOOOO boring... ZzZzZzZzZzzZzzzzzzz

I don't mind "boring" roses if they winter hardy and reliable - especially if they are in constant bloom. The most boring roses I ever grew were the dead sticks that I found each spring before I found the internet garden groups and learned more about growing hardy roses!

I am glad that breeders like Radler are developing disease resistant roses suitable for colder climates. I think some of his newer roses look promising - especially Milwaukee's Calatrava and Orchid Romance. I like Carefree Celebration, a knockout relative. It blooms constantly in my garden while my "interesting" hybrid tea roses hibernate or sulk. It was constantly filled with blooms this year until after Thanksgiving. I don't mind knockouts, but I wish stores would carry a wider variety of own root and/or hardy roses. Maybe the success of the knockout roses will encourage both gardeners and stores to try other varieties.

I wasn't expecting a "groundcover rose" to get as tall as 2'. They may be similar to my Kordes "Baby Blanket" rose. It sent long, skinny canes up to 6' long that rooted where they touched the ground. I cut it back to a manageable size - about 3' x 3' this summer and gave away a couple of baby plants. I love the pretty pink buds and blooms as well as the disease resistance. I have seen beautiful pictures of "Baby Blanket" grown as a grafted "tree rose". I think it could also be grown as a short climbing floribunda.

My Kordes "Roseberry Blanket" rose is the kind of groundcover rose that I want! It is low growing, spreading but well behaved, disease resistant and constantly in bloom. It roots where it touches the ground, so I relocated baby plants to a couple of locations in the garden. I would like to add similar roses in different colors.

link to Roseberry Blanket
http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

Roseberry Blanket is one of the Kordes Vigorosa roses. I have Apricot Vigorosa and Toscana Vigorosa. They would make nice groundcover roses, I'm sure, although I'm growing Toscana on a short trellis.

Here's the whole list of them:

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

I don't think my 2-foot groundcover rose is comparable to your Baby Blanket. It sends up canes that are 2 feet tall, not 6 feet.

I was amused but saddened by your wish: "Maybe the success of the knockout roses will encourage both gardeners and stores to try other varieties." Unfortunately, I think the opposite has happened. The Knock Out roses have been so successful that they're crowding other roses out of commerce and out of gardens.

A couple of years ago all you could find at most of the big boxes was the Knockouts. Walmart used to carry other roses. But for 2 years now, all they had were the Knock Outs. They're cheap to produce so the big boxes (where most people get their start) are willing to forgo "odd" roses in favor of things that are "guaranteed" to grow. That hurts. 2 years ago, I spent well over $3000 at big boxes buying tons of different roses (almost none the same). 2011, I spent probably about $200 (no variety, almost all were identical in what they got). I'm hoping that 2012 will be better and stores realize that people want variety, not the same ol' same ol.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure that people want variety. You and I want variety, but most people just want something that will grow and bloom reliably, and now that there are several types of Knock Out roses in different colors, that's enough variety for them.

I agree. Most of us are not going to find what we want at the big box stores - nor should we expect to. They are mass merchandisers; we are collectors. I believe Knock Out roses definitely fill a need and I'm glad they were developed. They have helped roses lose their "difficult" label. I have a few but they will never be my favorites.

I bought a few a few years ago and only one has done well
but under better care they might be great.

Which one is that, CR?

I was wondering the same thing, zuzu. I love soft pinks!

It is probably different in CA - land of the rose bowl parade. Lots of people in this area say "I can't grow roses" because they had no success growing body bag roses poorly grafted to borderline hardy Dr. Huey rootstock. The knockouts will at least bloom nonstop their first summer in the ground and survive the winter without protection. That is a whole new ballgame for cold climate gardeners - at least those that shop in your average garden center.

A couple of people asked me this year if my "pretty roses" - Grenada and Lagerfeld seem to be the most popular with passers by- are as easy to grow as the knockouts. I said that some like Honey Sweet are just as easy to grow. However, Grenada needs Bayer to prevent disease and protection in the winter. (I say Bayer because people like the idea of plant aspirin but are terrified of "chemicals" even though most have more "chemicals" in their grocery bags than I would ever tolerate in my garden). Lagerfeld is a total diva. He barely mad it thru last winter. He is overwintering in a muslin tepee this year. (Muslin teepees are overturned tomato cages covered with muslin and filled with crumpled newspaper on top of the peat moss and mulch winter protection. I do that to try to keep some canes alive). Tiffany gets a teepee also. My fussier hybrid teas had major cane dieback this spring - probably due to the severe ice storms last winter. Everything was coated with ice for weeks on end. Then we had two months of freeze thaw torture. Wet mud all day which froze solid again at night. This winter is surprisingly mild so far. We have had temperatures i the 50s until last week. I am just starting my winter protection routine because the ground has just frozen.

The most commented upon rose in my garden last summer was Carefree Celebration. I had it growing with Johnson's Blue geraniums. I like the coral/purple color combo. Both bloomed nonstop.

The big box stores take returns. I can't be the only person who showed up with receipts, body bags and dead sticks for store credit every spring. The computers must notice the plants that get returned and which ones don't. I returned a Floral Carpet "Appleblossom Pink" rose three times before finally giving up. It didn't even survive until winter. Floral Carpet roses get good reviews from other people. Maybe the pale pink one was less hardy or I got bad stock. I agree that most of us buy our roses elsewhere, but most novice gardeners start with plants from big box stores. (The rest of us wander thru the plant department just in case they have some treasures on the shelf.)

I don't understand why some savvy grower doesn't start marketing off patent own root old garden roses. They would have to come up with a catchy name and weird colored pot. That seems to be what it takes to sell these days.

Baby Blanket would be wonderful on a trellis with a dark purple clematis like Jackmani. At some point, my garden and I will move to larger accommodations and she will be able to get as big as she wants. In the meantime, she will have to remain a heavily pruned floribunda unless I decide to start building tuteurs. Pruning her this summer was like taming an octopus - a very prickly octopus.

I am going to try a couple of oso easy roses - I am just deciding which ones.

Andi - I agree w/Lagerfeld. Not as fussy for a mauve as, say, Sterling Silver, but definitely (and this is sad to say) hardier than Stainless Steel. I'll be surprised if ANY of my Stainless Steels make it through this winter. I have 3 Lagerfelds & only 1 is really happy.. the other two I should just shovelprune. Most of my Sterling Silvers did ok, but of the 4 Stainless Steels only 1 looked happy going into winter. I really need to buy them from like Palatine rather than getting the Dr. Huey grafts.. Dr. Huey always seems to come through on those. Wonder why. I hope that my Honey Sweets (got 2 from RU in 2011) make it through the winter. They're buried up to their eyeballs in mulch. I've had freezing temps since Halloween & Dec had some MAJOR cold days (highs in the single digits). This month hasn't been too bad.. mostly "normals" (40s / 20s) but last Thursday it was almost 70 degs! WTH!! Poor Canadian geese (which I hate, btw) are so confused.. you see massive flocks going north, then going south.. they can't seem to figure out which way to go!

And no, you're not the only one who takes back dead sticks w/receipts. ;) There's one older lady at the HD in my town that sighs expansively whenever she sees me.. she knows that I'm bringing her dead things. She's gotten uberfussy, I have to bring back the original POTS too, not just the receipts 'cuz she has to know what these dead things are. Well, dead roses look like dead roses!! 2011 wasn't too bad, only took back less than 20 roses from winterkill (poor planting or just a weak rose). So I've got store credit waiting patiently for me to blow on non-dead things for me to kill!! And I have to wait another month to find out what Paulino's Gardens (huge garden center) has on their list of roses this year.. they won't release a list of roses until February. Planning on going crazy there this May. :D

I suspect that my problem overwintering roses is a combination of the cold and the freeze thaw cycles. My climate is not as cold as yours, skiekitty, but it is much wetter. We also don't have much lasting snow cover. It snows, melts and snows again. The grafted roses that died mostly died at the grafts. Some were visibly split. Another problem is the rocks. My friend helped me dig holes to plant the roses. It is a challenge to find a spot to hang a hummingbird feeder post without hitting a rock. Digging a hole deep enough to bury the rose join and removing the rocks one encounters is a major challenge here - especially when someone else is digging it, cursing in English and Italian and saying "this has to be deep enough now"! Other gardeners in the area grow grafted roses in raised beds. They have done fine for them. To be fair, my grafted roses were "body bag" roses from big bag stores.

I am so glad that Wildeve survived! I remember when we went shopping , my friend said "if this one doesn't make it, maybe you should give up on roses". We planted it in the hole where another rose died (not a good idea in retrospect). Actually, that location is known as "the hole that had that big rock". Wildeve survived and thrived. The only problem is that she is a bit big for the space. I can deal with that. I am thrilled for a rose to survive and become "too big". I am getting braver about pruning. Luckily, I have roses like Wildeve that can survive any newbie pruning mistakes. I am minimal pruner. I want to keep my roses healthy, not produce exhibition blooms.

I didn't have luck with any types of plants from Home Depot here. I don't even bother to look, so I won't be tempted. A Lowes opened recently, so I shop there.

Maybe you have to be a bit crazy to garden in the mountains (I know, not the Rocky Mountains....but hilly and rocky enough for me). The work is worth it when I see the beautiful flowers!

I am still deciding about the oso easy roses. I want "Peaches and Cream" and "Mango Spreader" and am on the fence about the others.

the one I have left is a peach-yellow blend and its name might be peaches & cream or something like that but I lost the tag on it.

Vicky - is it HoneyBun? Doesn't look like Peachy Cream from HMF http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...

Here's a cheatsheet on the OSO Easy roses. http://www.djroger.com/oso_eas...

It could be Peachy Cream - it is said to fade from apricot to cream. Two other oso easy roses - Strawberry Crush and Honey Bun have similar flower form in pictures.

One source said that Strawberry Crush is less cold tolerant that the other oso easy roses (but still hardy in zone 6). Another said that Fragrant Spreader is "not for small gardens" because it quickly covers a lot of ground. That can be good or bad depending on your perspective.

Here is a link with a short video:
http://www.gardensmart.tv/?p=p...

I like Peachy Cream and Mango Salsa the best judging by the pictures. There aren't many reviews from gardeners on these roses, yet. Guess I'll have to try them and write my own. I wish that I had the room (and the budget) to grow every rose that catches my fancy!

Andi - I know what you mean. I'm having to limit myself now.. and that sucks!! I do like that Mango Salsa... nom!