Roses

You have to grow these beauties! We feature roses developed at the Morden Experiment Station on the plains of Canada that are wind, alkaline soil, and winter tolerant. There is no need to mound soil over a graft or to lay canes down and cover for winter. These all grow on their own roots and any winter die-back doesn’t remove varietal character. They, climbers included, bloom on new wood so a bad winter never results in a year without blooms.

Put the rose spray and dust away, they are disease resistant and we’ve not seen cane borers bother these either. Bloom season is from summer to frost with just a bit of a slump during the hottest part of July. Leave the late season blooms on the plants to develop large, showy rose hips for winter color and to encourage canes to harden off before winter.
Pruning is best left until April to remove any die-back. These are truly easy care! Consider surrounding your plants with nepeta, thyme, oregano and agastaches to keep the deer at bay and to provide shaded soil for the rose plants. Full sun, to , water during periods of peak bloom in hot, drying winds.

Canadian Explorer Series: Hardy to Zone 2

Other Hardy Roses

Plant the more strongly fragrant rose varieties near seating areas, doors and windows. Place white-blooming plants where you can enjoy them as twilight falls. As the light fades you will see the palest blooms longest and in cooling evening air fragrances will become stronger. Roses also benefit from companion plants to shade the roses roots.

Rain Gauge

Throughout this site, the following are used as guidelines for watering established plants:

These plants need regular watering somewhat like a bluegrass lawn so that they never dry to depth in the root system during the active growing season and need occasional winter watering to prevent root dessication and resultant plant death.

These plants are adapted to intermittent deep watering with soil drying to a depth of a few inches between waterings. Watering frequency may be every couple of weeks during the active growing season and maybe only one winter watering for optimal care.

These truly xeric plants can live with our 12 inches of natural precipitation and only need a winter watering during a multi-year drought but they will thrive with a monthly watering. Overwatering will kill some of these.

Privacy Policy

Contact Us