Tip of the Week — 6/15/09

Posted in Gardening Tips on June 15 2009, by Sonia Uyterhoeven

Advice and Trivia about Roses

Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education. Join her each weekend for home gardening demonstrations on a variety of topics in the Home Gardening Center and for part of June in the Rose Garden.

When I was a child, I used to chant “Ring-a-round the roses, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” Recently I discovered that the traditional manifestation of this song went as follows: Ring-a-ring o’roses, a pocket full of posies; atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down. The words are rumored to have originated during the Great Plague in London around 1664. The ring of roses was a red rash that formed on the skin of infected people. Posies were an herbal mixture that people carried around in their pockets to ward off the plague, and the sneezing and falling down referred to the victims’ collapse and imminent death.

On a more cheery note, roses have long been the symbol of love, virtue, and fidelity. They have worked their way into famous passages of poetry and have enveloped religious icons in works of art.

Now is the season when the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is in its full glory. The old-fashioned garden roses bloom just once a season—and June is their month. Repeat-flowering roses appear and many continue to bloom with great vigor through the entire summer.

Tips for Growing Roses

• Roses like well-drained soil and full sun
• For partial shade, try hybrid musks, albas, rugosas, ‘Knock Out’ roses, and some of the David Austin shrub roses.
• Roses are heavy feeders: Fertilize with a balanced slow-release fertilizer in April, end of June, and early August.
• Water your roses well. If they dry out, they will be more susceptible to diseases.
• Deadhead repeat blooming roses for better flowering, but leave some roses (such as rugosas) alone so that rose hips can form (not all of them form good hips).
• Prune old-fashioned roses after flowering; prune repeat-flowering roses in mid-March

 
A Recipe for Potpourri
4 cups dried rose petals (red and pink roses generally have the strongest scents)
1 cup dried rosebuds
1 cup dried lavender flowers
1/2 cup powdered orris root
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1/2 tablespoon ground cloves
A few drops of essential rose oil

Place ingredients in a paper bag and store in a cool place for six weeks, shaking the contents periodically.

Check out the YouTube video by the Associated Press of Sonia identifying the best plants to use in creating a window box.