Best Roses for the Southern Garden

Many women are looking forward to receiving gorgeous bouquets of roses for Valentine’s Day. While these arrangements are stunning, cut flowers last only a short time. Why not enjoy a profusion of beautiful blooms that last for weeks every spring and summer by adding roses to your garden?

My friend, Virginia Landrum, President of South Metro Rose Society and a member of the Peachtree City Garden Club, recently shared her dozen top roses for our area. These roses are rated above 8 on a scale of 0-10 for beauty, disease resistance and ease of care.  Now is the time to purchase and plant bare-root roses. Many local nurseries have a nice selection. You can also order all the roses mentioned below from rose catalogs online. Container-grown roses are starting to appear in the nurseries for spring planting. Check out Andy’s (Fayetteville and Newnan), Country Gardens Farm and Nursery (Newnan), Pike’s (Peachtree City), Mill Pond Gardens (Brooks) or Lowes and Home Depot.

Virginia Landrum’s Recommended Top Dozen Roses for Fayette County:

• Abraham Darby  – David Austin English Rose, pink double blooms
• Belinda’s Dream – Shrub rose, medium pink, low maintenance
  

  Julia Child Floribunda Rose

• Bride’s Dream – Hybrid tea rose, pink
• Elina – Hybrid tea, light yellow, resistant to disease, low maintenance
• Fragrant Cloud – Hybrid tea, orange/red, top rose for fragrance
• Gemini – Hybrid tea – light pink/darker pink at end of petals
• Millie Walters – Miniature, orange pink, prolific bloomer
• Miss Flippins, Miniature, medium red
• Julia Child – Floribunda, medium yellow, a favorite
• Moonstone – Hybrid tea, white/touch of pink, another favorite
• Touch of Class – Hybrid tea, orange pink, one of highest rated
• Veterans’ Honor – Hybrid Tea, true dark red, great performer

Here are some of my personal favorites…

• Abraham Darby® – This David Austin English rose grows into a shapely and vigorous shrub. The rose begins blooming in early summer with large blooms in shades of pink, apricot and yellow and the blooming continues throughout the season.
  

  Abraham Darby English Rose

• ‘Don Juan’ Climbing Rose – Climbing roses are considered the acrobats of the rose world with long canes that look beautiful on arbors, fences or climbing into trees. ‘Don Juan’ has stunning crimson flowers with ruffled petals and a damask scent.

• Veterans’ Honor® Hybrid Tea Rose (2000 “Rose of the Year”) – Since my father was a veteran and my son is serving in the Army, I am partial to Veterans’ Honor.  If you order this fabulous rose from Jackson & Perkins online, 10% of the net sales go to support American veterans’ health care. This spectacular red rose is a wonderful tribute to the men and women who serve in our Armed Forces. Hybrid tea roses are popular for their beauty, fragrance and easy care. A Hybrid tea rose will usually produce one blossom at the end of the stem rather than clusters of blooms. Most are repeat bloomers and have some
  

  Veterans' Honor Hybrid Tea Rose

  degree of fragrance.

• Knock Out® Shrub Roses – ‘Radrazz’ was the 2000 “All American Rose Selection” winner. A Knock Out rose is the perfect rose for those who don’t think they can grow roses. It is almost completely resistant to all diseases associated with roses. Shrubs will grow large and wide and will continually bloom throughout the growing season. Knock Outs look great as a mass planting.

Why not add some roses to your garden this year!