Rose Gardening: Let's Begin

We spent the last few articles looking at flower gardens in general. Now let's get a bit more specific and spend some time discussing the queen of the garden - the rose. 

Perhaps the best known and most loved flower in the world, roses add elegance, beauty and refinement to your garden.  Considering their delicate beauty, they are surprisingly easy to grow and don't require much maintenance.

They're not just beautiful, either.  They've been used in a variety of ways outside of the garden for centuries, for medicinal as well as more ethereal purposes.

They’re use in perfumes, for example, is well-established.  Did you know, however, that they are often used to flavor baked goods and some confections? 

Rose petals contain tannin and have been used to control bleeding.  An infusion of rose petals has been shown to help treat diarrhea.  The ancient Chinese used rose water and rose oil as a remedy for colon and stomach troubles.

Roses are related to plums, apples and almonds and belong to the family Rosaceae and the genus Rosa. There are specimens of roses in the fossil record dating back forty million years.  Fossils from Colorado, for example, have been found from about that time period.

Roses are native to most of the northern hemisphere, growing wild in North America, Egypt, India and even as far north as Siberia.  While they can grow well in the southern hemisphere, there is no evidence to suggest that they are naturally occurring there.

The roses we know today are the result of thousands of years of cultivation, beginning with the ancient Egyptians and Chinese, and followed by the Greeks and Romans.  It's believed that the Romans introduced the cultivated varieties to England and France.  The English and French were actively cultivating roses as early as the 15th century.  They crossed the pond the following century.

Cultivation and hybridization have resulted in literally thousands of varieties of roses, with an astonishing range of colors.  Unfortunately, this has also made roses not quite as hardy as their ancestors.  While easily maintained, they're still less resistant to diseases and insects, and should be watched carefully for signs of distress.

Roses can be used in a number of different ways throughout the garden.  Climbing roses can soften a wall or fence, or become a beautiful, living sculpture on an arbor or trellis.  Rose bushes can accent the front and sides of your house, giving your home that all-important curb appeal.  Some varieties can even be used as hedges.  

You can even set aside an entire section of your yard for a rose garden.  If you grow enough of them, you might even be able to sell them at your local flea market for a nice little profit.  How great would that be?  Put the profits away, and next year you might have enough to pay for all your new plants!