Roses for Black Thumb Gardeners

publication date: May 12, 2008

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author/source: Kate Copsey / STAFF

For many years I wouldn’t grow roses.  Although I liked them in theory, they were a royal pain in the garden. From black spot to greenfly my sparsely blooming attempts were doomed to die.  Then the breeders came out with the Knockout series of roses, which changed the lives of gardeners everywhere.

Knockout roses were touted as insect and virus free, being tolerant of neglect and they don’t need dead heading either. Now that’s my kind of rose!  For those who don’t believe the marketing claims, you only have to look along the many subdivisions and corporate landscapes to see the pretty red roses blooming quite happily without any care.

So the rose developers listened to the gardeners with black thumbs and came up with Knockout in red and pink. What they lost along the way was any form of scent, which is why some people grow roses in the first place.

With newfound confidence, I scoured around for some easy to grow, scented roses and quickly found heirloom roses fit that description.  Heirloom roses have been around since before Round-up and chemicals came onto the market, and they still survived beautifully.

The first heirloom rose I tried was Shakespeare – a deep purple/red bloom.  The shrub can be kept reasonably small by pruning, and the flowers continue throughout most of the summer – even in a drought. 

To view a variety of heirloom roses, take a trip to Barrington Hall in Roswell where 20 different heirloom varieties of shrub and climbing roses are being grown.

Heirloom roses can be purchased online from several places such as the Rose Emporium in Texas, or good local nurseries such as Autumn Hill in Crabapple, which is where my Shakespeare came from.

'Shakespeare' - a fitting name for this heirloom rose

Water Restrictions Update
Late Friday afternoon Fulton County amended the water regulations to allow hand watering three days a week, plus some expanded landscape exceptions.  Although most of the towns will not have changed their regulations yet, it is expected that they will continue to follow Fulton guidelines.  So keep a check on your town’s website for the latest updates.