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You’ll probably never see a sign on a rose plant that says, “I’m a landscape rose!” But there are some roses that are better suited than others to being grown alongside other plants in your landscape. But how do you choose?
These are the qualities that make a rose a good choice for adding rich spots of color in the landscape: - It should bloom nonstop throughout the season, with large, colorful flowers or clusters of flowers.
- It should require little in the way of pruning, with blooms that fade attractively and fall cleanly once they’re spent, making room for the new flowers to come.
- It should be resistant to the usual rose diseases, such as black spot and powdery mildew, so you don’t have to mess with spraying.
- It should have pretty much the same culture requirements as the other plants growing around it.
- It should be hardy, without needing protection in climates where winters are cold.
- It should do the job you want it to do.
Roses have a reputation for being fussy. But these days, many of the newer varieties are so easy to grow, they can be as carefree as the plants you want to mix them with. In fact, you can have a colorful yard that stops traffic without much effort at all! Rose hybridizers – the people who create new varieties of roses – have developed breeding programs that improve the qualities that make roses desirable, while eliminating the qualities that make the plants difficult. So many of today’s landscape roses – the shrubs, shrublets, floribundas and climbers – have amazing flower power, with a great variety of unique colors, huge clusters of flowers and a fast repeat bloom. The plants are clean, dropping their flowers before they turn brown and ugly, and they produce new flower clusters continuously throughout the season.
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