Fall 2008
Summer 2008
Cooking With Roses
Fertilizing Roses
Landscaping wirh Roses
Newsletter Archive

Roses Flourish in Fall

Fall brings warmth and long dry days for the roses. They LOVE it!
fall rose
With the coming of Fall, the days will shorten and the moisture in the air will increase. Some of us will see foggy days and misty evenings, others will notice a distinct chill in the air and dew on the roses in the early morning.

Wherever we live in California, RUST (a ghastly ‘bag’ fungus) will start invading the garden. You will recognize it by the characteristic round ‘balls’ of golden spores on the undersides of the rose leaves. Powdery Mildew will also be a frequent visitor - as the dampness sets in and the nights get cooler you will spot the tell-tale white ‘dust’ on the leaves and buds.

These two fungal diseases are the bane of the fall rose garden. They disfigure the leaves and powdery mildew will attack and disfigure the buds as well of most ornamental shrubs. They should NOT be tolerated.

As a preventive you should make sure the roses have sufficient space around each bush so the breezes can blow through them - good air circulation helps keep the floating fungus spores from landing.
You need to thin out the centers of the bushes so the sunlight can beam down into the crown of the plant.
Deadhead the spent blooms in late August and early September so that the roses will give one last ‘push’ and provide wonderful fall blooms for late September through December.
If hips (the seed pods left after the petals fall off) have formed, they can be left to ripen and used in floral arrangements for the Fall Table.
Roses need a ‘last feeding’ in September. This feeding will last them through the Fall and help them into dormancy for the winter months ahead.
Feed with a balanced fertilizer - one with a moderate amount of nitrogen (6-15-8 or 8-12- 8) with a bit more phosphorous than usual. You want to stimulate blooms but not any new growth - after all, winter is coming and that new growth can easily freeze or dwindle away. Why waste the energy?
Fall blooms will display amazing colors as the blooms adapt to the cooler nights and the angle of the sun declines. Often these are the best blooms of the entire year.
Control insect damage and eliminate any fungus spores with a spray consisting of hot water and horticultural oils.
For those who spray chemicals, a good choice is Immunox - the straight formula without insecticide added. E-Rase (a heavy jojoba oil) can also be used to control mildews.

Fall Rose Tips:

Deadhead in late summer - cut off dead blooms, going down the stem to the first or second 5- leaflet leaf on the stem. Combat excessive moisture by opening the center of the rose bush and allowing good air circulation. Spray a preventive mixture to combat Rust and Powdery Mildews in late Fall. Mulch to retain moisture in the soil. Feed your roses with a ‘bloom’ fertilizer that does not contain a high amount of nitrogen.

Stop - and Smell The Roses!

SUMMER 2008:

Roses, Roses, Roses ...

Summer – the time of abundance in the garden. Every flower (and weed) is blooming, the birds are singing, the grass is high and life is sweet. The roses have rushed to bring spring blooms, and now they are slowing down a bit and ‘recycling’ their energies. New blooms are on the way!

Keep the rose a mean, blooming machine by removing the spent blooms. In hotter climates you should just snap the blooms off at the neck, leaving as many leaves as possible to make shade for the bush. In cooler climates, count down from the spent bloom and cut the stem off at a healthy set of 5-leaflet leaves.

Cool, moist coastal summers are perfect climates for mildews. Powdery mildew will attack roses (and many other plants). You can minimize any chance of infection by making sure your roses have good ventilation all around each bush.

Don’t plant a rose flat up against a wall or fence - there is no air circulation at the back when you do this and mildews get in and infect the blooms.

Aphids should be leaving soon. These nuisances can be hosed off with a jet of water each morning. Once they hit the ground, the black ground beetles get them! If your garden is healthy, you should have plenty of soldier beetles and lady bugs flying around, snacking on the leftovers.

Roses need to be fed during the summer months. They expended a lot of energy bringing on that first flush of delirious blooms - now they need to replace their reserves. A nice meal of any kind of fertilizer that has approximately a 20-20- 20 rating would be appreciated (follow directions on the label). Remember - also spread some organics under the mulch and water them in. They become ‘comfort food’ as they disintegrate.

With dry weather setting in - save the petals of your blooms and make a dry sachet by laying them on a dry surface in a hot, dark area - or use your food dehydrator.

Pluck red, orange or dark lavender petals, snip off the white ‘pop’ at the base, and slice into green salads. They add color, vitamins, and a ‘touch’ of the exotic!

You can make rose water and add it to tea for a cool, scented beverage. Pile two cups of scented petals in a pitcher and add water. Cover. Set in the sun for several hours. Strain the water off into a clean container. Dump the petals in the compost. Use the water in teas for a hint of roses! When using roses in cooking – make sure they have not been sprayed with anything other than plain water.

Keep weeds from going to seed in your garden. Weed seeds now will sprout when the rains start again - and you’ll be pulling weeds all winter long!

Summer Rose Tips:

Finger prune those little buds surrounding a center bud so you will have one bloom on each stem – or push off only the center bud to make a spray.

Feed with a handful of 20-20-20 or something along that line in midsummer.

Water is essential. As the heat increases, more per bush each week. Up to 10 gallons a week! Check on those pots! Keep them moist.

Mulch to retain moisture in the soil and keep the top of the soil from drying up.

Hose off bushes once a week in the morning to clean off foliage and knock off obnoxious bugs.

Spray once a month with an organic fungicide - mildew is NOT your friend!

Rejoice in your roses – give bouquets away! Make someone happy.

Stop - and Smell The Roses!

COOKING WITH ROSES

One of the rose garden's many bounties occurs each fall as the last roses bloom and succulent rose hips form. These hips are actually seed pods and are edible. Remember --- roses and apples are cousins!! So the hip forms like a little "rose apple". Depending on the type of rose, the hips will differ in shape, size, sweetness, color and time it takes to ripen. As with all fruit, you will know when the hip is ripe because the sides will "give" slightly when you gently squeeze the pod.

In my yard I have roses that make big, round hips that start out green and slowly turn bright pumpkin orange. There are two other bushes whose hips are slender and "flask" or "coke bottle" shaped and they tend to turn reddish brown. The best and biggest hips in my yard are on Altissimo (a climber) and Hansa (one of the rugosas).

The hip forms after the bloom has withered, so if you want to harvest hips you must stop deadheading the roses in August.

When I was a little girl, my grandmother taught me to make green apple jelly. She also adapted her recipe to make jelly from the rose hips in the fall. It's pretty simple, and very tasty. Rose hips have from 10 to100 times more vitamin C than most natural products along with vitamins A, E, B-1, niacin, K and P and also calcium, phosphorous and iron.

PREPARATIONS

If you want to try this winter ritual, here's how to start.
Be very sure the roses haven't been sprayed with insecticide or dusted with sulfur. This is very important. You want clean, untainted rose hips for your jelly.

Watch the hips form and when they are the right color (or you are sure they are ripe), pick them off. Most rose hip recipes require a good amount of rose hips.

Have sterilized jelly jars ready.

Wash the hips and chop them (nowadays, I use a food processor). Since this is going to be a jelly (which will be strained any way) you don't need to remove the skin or pick out the seeds. Just don't let the seeds break up -- if broken, they add bitterness to the jelly.

(Some recipes call for apple pieces to provide extra juiciness, which reduces the quantity of hips needed but not the particular taste and aroma of the hips.)
Use the hips instead of green apples in any apple jelly recipe.

MY RECIPE:

Boil 2 lbs of chopped rose hips in 2 pints of water until good and tender. Rub the pulp through a fine sieve to remove the seeds and basically make a puree.

Peel, quarter and remove seeds from 4 to 5 green apples and boil in water until soft. Rub them through the sieve also.

Combine the apple and rose hip puree with 2 1/2 to 3 cups of sugar and 1/3 of a cup of lemon juice. The solution should be cloudy with minute bits of the rose and apple pulp.

Bring to a boil and continue boiling for another 15 minutes.

When it has reached the desired consistency, (makes a thin skin when poured from a spoon) pour into sterilized jars and seal.

Fertilizing Your Roses

By Jolene Adams, CGCI Rose Chairman

Fertilizing Roses Roses have hearty appetites. To keep on producing beautiful blooms, sturdy stems and healthy foliage, they require three indispensable nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the form of potash (N, P, K). Fertilizer labels carry three numbers that give the percentages of these nutrients that the mix contains. The "general purpose" rose foods and fertilizers most commonly found at the supermarket or discount store usually is labeled 15-15-15, which means that 45% of the mixture (by weight) consists of equal parts of these three main nutrients. The other 55% is filler. Usually the filler material contains traces of the micronutrients sulfur, calcium, magnesium, manganese, iron and/or zinc and keeps the stuff from clumping in the bag or box.

What

You can feed roses with granular fertilizer, spikes, time release beads, liquid fertilizer and/or powdered products (like manures or kelp products). The granular and spike fertilizers may release nutrients all at once, or over a period of time; the liquids nourish the plant right away, the powdered forms take a while to degrade in the soil before becoming available to the plants.

When feeding – try to use a balanced fertilizer – one that has many of the micronutrients included. Don’t try to add minor or supplemental nutrients yourself – you’ll overdo it and probably kill the plant. Remember – “micro” means a teensy bit. Magnesium is one of those micronutrients – your rose doesn’t need it if you are growing them in clay soils in California – we already have as much magnesium as we need. Epsom salts is magnesium sulfate – so, buyer beware!

Whichever style of fertilizer you use, be sure to read the label carefully to find out how much to apply. Inadequate nutrition can stunt a rose's growth; too much can weaken plants and make them susceptible to disease.

Time-release fertilizer delivers nutrients slowly but steadily over a period of time. Many people feel that these fertilizers don't deliver at a fast-enough rate for roses. The beads of fertilizer must be below the soil and covered so light doesn’t hit them. The soil must be very moist. The ground has to reach a certain warmth usually above 70 deg. F before they begin to work.

Liquid fertilizers can be sprayed on the foliage (yes, leaves will absorb fertilizer!) to help brighten colors and increase bloom size. Results can be seen within 10 days. This is called foliar feeding. If you use this method, be sure to spray early in the day so the sun can dry the leaves before the evening cools off and mildews are prowling through the garden looking for damp leaves!.

Granular, powdered or pelletized fertilizers are applied to the ground around each bush, usually at the drip line, and gently scratched into the first two inches of soil. Be careful not to destroy the feeder roots fanning out from the base of the bush. Cover the soil with mulch to hold in moisture so the fertilizer goes into solution.

When

Roses should be fed on a regular schedule. Granular fertilizers can be applied at the beginning of the growing season (usually March, when the emerging foliage is about 3"-4" long), at the end of each bloom cycle, in the middle of the year (mid-July), and one final feed later in September to give them something on which to "winter over." That late feeding should be low in Nitrogen (a formula like 0-10-10) so the roses won’t put out new growth in winter.

How

All your plants need to be well-watered the day before you fertilize. This prevents "fertilizer burn" which happens when a thirsty plant tries to drink up the liquid part of the feeding because it needs water. You can water very well on one day, then spread the fertilizer (powdered, granular, time release) or push in the spikes, or use a hose-end sprayer for a liquid fertilizer application. Then you water the ground again to help the fertilizer go into solution in the soil.

–Landscaping With Roses

We’ve all been raised on the idea of a group of tall hybrid tea roses as a focal point in the garden. But modern roses are moving into the landscape – as the ‘supporting cast’ for your ‘garden production’.

Stiff, upright exhibition-style rose bushes are giving way to the softer look of the shrub, the shrublet, the miniature, the floribunda rose to fill out a garden border, to mask fences and walls, and to line drives, entrances, and walkways.

Meet the ‘new roses’ - tough, colorful, easy to grow, and tolerant of neglect. Here are some that have recently been introduced to the gardening market:

Wing Ding - a polyantha rose with a lot of ‘pop’. This shrubby rose grows to medium height (about 2 ½ ft in CA), covers itself several times a year with bright sprays of orangish-red, small blooms of 7 - 8 petals. The large clusters of blooms last for at least two weeks, and the blooms occur all over the edges of the bush - so by cutting back the old growth carefully, you can have an amazing monthly spectacle of bloom from this little shrub. It is extremely disease resistant.

Good and Plenty - just like the familiar candy this shrub rose blooms in raspberry pink with white centers. A shrubby bush, the small blooms of 5-8 petals cover the edges in flushes every 5 weeks. Easy care - no diseases, lots of color. This one forms a small mound and blooms its head off every year.

Marmalade Skies - prepare to be shocked! Big, fluffy clusters of screaming tangerine blooms - about 20 petals, flowers in big bunches. Sometimes so many blooms the stems bend down! Disease resistant, capable of forming a hedge, grows to about 3 ft tall, spreading habit.

Golden Halo - one of the very stiff, upright miniature roses that blooms in lovely clusters of golden yellow. The small blooms look like florist roses, and often come in small clusters. Reaches about 2 ft.

Blossom Blanket - this one is good for slopes, walls, cliff faces. Small white blooms of 20 petals with big yellow ‘eyes’, disease resistant, and dedicated to growing low - it covers the ground in about 3 years, giving you a carpet of blooms on a sturdy, disease resistant shrub of 2-3 ft tall. And ... it’s fragrant!

Coffee Bean - what? You never had a ‘brown’ rose?? This little gem is a russet-colored miniature, with blooms that blend brown, rust, soft purple, caramel and dusty orange - all in one flower! Deep green leaves and strong disease resistance, with blooms coming every 5 weeks or so. Smoky red-orange buds open to blooms that go through color changes in the orange-brown ranges, ending dark indigo-brown.

Treat your garden to a makeover - try some landscape accents – with roses!

Download the most recent copy of
the Rose Newsletter below
wriiten by CGCI Rose Chairman Jolene Adams.

Rose News-Fall 2008 "Roses: The Fall Season"
Rose News-Summer 2008
Rose News- Spring 2008
Rose News- Winter 2007
Rose News-Fall 2007



	by Jolene Adams CGCI Rose Chairman Email: jolene_adams@ix.netcom.com Choose a topic in the left column to view the article on the right.
. Fall 2008 Summer 2008 Cooking With Roses Fertilizing Roses Landscaping wirh Roses Newsletter Archive Roses Flourish in Fall Fall brings warmth and long dry days for the roses. They LOVE it! With the coming of Fall, the days will shorten and the moisture in the air will increase. Some of us will see foggy days and misty evenings, others will notice a distinct chill in the air and dew on the roses in the early morning. Wherever we live in California, RUST (a ghastly ‘bag’ fungus) will start invading the garden. You will recognize it by the characteristic round ‘balls’ of golden spores on the undersides of the rose leaves. Powdery Mildew will also be a frequent visitor - as the dampness sets in and the nights get cooler you will spot the tell-tale white ‘dust’ on the leaves and buds. These two fungal diseases are the bane of the fall rose garden. They disfigure the leaves and powdery mildew will attack and disfigure the buds as well of most ornamental shrubs. They should NOT be tolerated. As a preventive you should make sure the roses have sufficient space around each bush so the breezes can blow through them - good air circulation helps keep the floating fungus spores from landing. You need to thin out the centers of the bushes so the sunlight can beam down into the crown of the plant. Deadhead the spent blooms in late August and early September so that the roses will give one last ‘push’ and provide wonderful fall blooms for late September through December. If hips (the seed pods left after the petals fall off) have formed, they can be left to ripen and used in floral arrangements for the Fall Table. Roses need a ‘last feeding’ in September. This feeding will last them through the Fall and help them into dormancy for the winter months ahead. Feed with a balanced fertilizer - one with a moderate amount of nitrogen (6-15-8 or 8-12- 8) with a bit more phosphorous than usual. You want to stimulate blooms but not any new growth - after all, winter is coming and that new growth can easily freeze or dwindle away. Why waste the energy? Fall blooms will display amazing colors as the blooms adapt to the cooler nights and the angle of the sun declines. Often these are the best blooms of the entire year. Control insect damage and eliminate any fungus spores with a spray consisting of hot water and horticultural oils. For those who spray chemicals, a good choice is Immunox - the straight formula without insecticide added. E-Rase (a heavy jojoba oil) can also be used to control mildews. Fall Rose Tips: Deadhead in late summer - cut off dead blooms, going down the stem to the first or second 5- leaflet leaf on the stem. Combat excessive moisture by opening the center of the rose bush and allowing good air circulation. Spray a preventive mixture to combat Rust and Powdery Mildews in late Fall. Mulch to retain moisture in the soil. Feed your roses with a ‘bloom’ fertilizer that does not contain a high amount of nitrogen. Stop - and Smell The Roses! . SUMMER 2008: Roses, Roses, Roses ... Summer – the time of abundance in the garden. Every flower (and weed) is blooming, the birds are singing, the grass is high and life is sweet. The roses have rushed to bring spring blooms, and now they are slowing down a bit and ‘recycling’ their energies. New blooms are on the way! Keep the rose a mean, blooming machine by removing the spent blooms. In hotter climates you should just snap the blooms off at the neck, leaving as many leaves as possible to make shade for the bush. In cooler climates, count down from the spent bloom and cut the stem off at a healthy set of 5-leaflet leaves. Cool, moist coastal summers are perfect climates for mildews. Powdery mildew will attack roses (and many other plants). You can minimize any chance of infection by making sure your roses have good ventilation all around each bush. Don’t plant a rose flat up against a wall or fence - there is no air circulation at the back when you do this and mildews get in and infect the blooms. Aphids should be leaving soon. These nuisances can be hosed off with a jet of water each morning. Once they hit the ground, the black ground beetles get them! If your garden is healthy, you should have plenty of soldier beetles and lady bugs flying around, snacking on the leftovers. Roses need to be fed during the summer months. They expended a lot of energy bringing on that first flush of delirious blooms - now they need to replace their reserves. A nice meal of any kind of fertilizer that has approximately a 20-20- 20 rating would be appreciated (follow directions on the label). Remember - also spread some organics under the mulch and water them in. They become ‘comfort food’ as they disintegrate. With dry weather setting in - save the petals of your blooms and make a dry sachet by laying them on a dry surface in a hot, dark area - or use your food dehydrator. Pluck red, orange or dark lavender petals, snip off the white ‘pop’ at the base, and slice into green salads. They add color, vitamins, and a ‘touch’ of the exotic! You can make rose water and add it to tea for a cool, scented beverage. Pile two cups of scented petals in a pitcher and add water. Cover. Set in the sun for several hours. Strain the water off into a clean container. Dump the petals in the compost. Use the water in teas for a hint of roses! When using roses in cooking – make sure they have not been sprayed with anything other than plain water. Keep weeds from going to seed in your garden. Weed seeds now will sprout when the rains start again - and you’ll be pulling weeds all winter long! Summer Rose Tips: Finger prune those little buds surrounding a center bud so you will have one bloom on each stem – or push off only the center bud to make a spray. Feed with a handful of 20-20-20 or something along that line in midsummer. Water is essential. As the heat increases, more per bush each week. Up to 10 gallons a week! Check on those pots! Keep them moist. Mulch to retain moisture in the soil and keep the top of the soil from drying up. Hose off bushes once a week in the morning to clean off foliage and knock off obnoxious bugs. Spray once a month with an organic fungicide - mildew is NOT your friend! Rejoice in your roses – give bouquets away! Make someone happy. Stop - and Smell The Roses! COOKING WITH ROSES One of the rose garden's many bounties occurs each fall as the last roses bloom and succulent rose hips form. These hips are actually seed pods and are edible. Remember --- roses and apples are cousins!! So the hip forms like a little "rose apple". Depending on the type of rose, the hips will differ in shape, size, sweetness, color and time it takes to ripen. As with all fruit, you will know when the hip is ripe because the sides will "give" slightly when you gently squeeze the pod. In my yard I have roses that make big, round hips that start out green and slowly turn bright pumpkin orange. There are two other bushes whose hips are slender and "flask" or "coke bottle" shaped and they tend to turn reddish brown. The best and biggest hips in my yard are on Altissimo (a climber) and Hansa (one of the rugosas). The hip forms after the bloom has withered, so if you want to harvest hips you must stop deadheading the roses in August. When I was a little girl, my grandmother taught me to make green apple jelly. She also adapted her recipe to make jelly from the rose hips in the fall. It's pretty simple, and very tasty. Rose hips have from 10 to100 times more vitamin C than most natural products along with vitamins A, E, B-1, niacin, K and P and also calcium, phosphorous and iron. PREPARATIONS If you want to try this winter ritual, here's how to start. Be very sure the roses haven't been sprayed with insecticide or dusted with sulfur. This is very important. You want clean, untainted rose hips for your jelly. Watch the hips form and when they are the right color (or you are sure they are ripe), pick them off. Most rose hip recipes require a good amount of rose hips. Have sterilized jelly jars ready. Wash the hips and chop them (nowadays, I use a food processor). Since this is going to be a jelly (which will be strained any way) you don't need to remove the skin or pick out the seeds. Just don't let the seeds break up -- if broken, they add bitterness to the jelly. (Some recipes call for apple pieces to provide extra juiciness, which reduces the quantity of hips needed but not the particular taste and aroma of the hips.) Use the hips instead of green apples in any apple jelly recipe. MY RECIPE: Boil 2 lbs of chopped rose hips in 2 pints of water until good and tender. Rub the pulp through a fine sieve to remove the seeds and basically make a puree. Peel, quarter and remove seeds from 4 to 5 green apples and boil in water until soft. Rub them through the sieve also. Combine the apple and rose hip puree with 2 1/2 to 3 cups of sugar and 1/3 of a cup of lemon juice. The solution should be cloudy with minute bits of the rose and apple pulp. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for another 15 minutes. When it has reached the desired consistency, (makes a thin skin when poured from a spoon) pour into sterilized jars and seal. Fertilizing Your Roses By Jolene Adams, CGCI Rose Chairman Roses have hearty appetites. To keep on producing beautiful blooms, sturdy stems and healthy foliage, they require three indispensable nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the form of potash (N, P, K). Fertilizer labels carry three numbers that give the percentages of these nutrients that the mix contains. The "general purpose" rose foods and fertilizers most commonly found at the supermarket or discount store usually is labeled 15-15-15, which means that 45% of the mixture (by weight) consists of equal parts of these three main nutrients. The other 55% is filler. Usually the filler material contains traces of the micronutrients sulfur, calcium, magnesium, manganese, iron and/or zinc and keeps the stuff from clumping in the bag or box. What You can feed roses with granular fertilizer, spikes, time release beads, liquid fertilizer and/or powdered products (like manures or kelp products). The granular and spike fertilizers may release nutrients all at once, or over a period of time; the liquids nourish the plant right away, the powdered forms take a while to degrade in the soil before becoming available to the plants. When feeding – try to use a balanced fertilizer – one that has many of the micronutrients included. Don’t try to add minor or supplemental nutrients yourself – you’ll overdo it and probably kill the plant. Remember – “micro” means a teensy bit. Magnesium is one of those micronutrients – your rose doesn’t need it if you are growing them in clay soils in California – we already have as much magnesium as we need. Epsom salts is magnesium sulfate – so, buyer beware! Whichever style of fertilizer you use, be sure to read the label carefully to find out how much to apply. Inadequate nutrition can stunt a rose's growth; too much can weaken plants and make them susceptible to disease. Time-release fertilizer delivers nutrients slowly but steadily over a period of time. Many people feel that these fertilizers don't deliver at a fast-enough rate for roses. The beads of fertilizer must be below the soil and covered so light doesn’t hit them. The soil must be very moist. The ground has to reach a certain warmth usually above 70 deg. F before they begin to work. Liquid fertilizers can be sprayed on the foliage (yes, leaves will absorb fertilizer!) to help brighten colors and increase bloom size. Results can be seen within 10 days. This is called foliar feeding. If you use this method, be sure to spray early in the day so the sun can dry the leaves before the evening cools off and mildews are prowling through the garden looking for damp leaves!. Granular, powdered or pelletized fertilizers are applied to the ground around each bush, usually at the drip line, and gently scratched into the first two inches of soil. Be careful not to destroy the feeder roots fanning out from the base of the bush. Cover the soil with mulch to hold in moisture so the fertilizer goes into solution. When Roses should be fed on a regular schedule. Granular fertilizers can be applied at the beginning of the growing season (usually March, when the emerging foliage is about 3"-4" long), at the end of each bloom cycle, in the middle of the year (mid-July), and one final feed later in September to give them something on which to "winter over." That late feeding should be low in Nitrogen (a formula like 0-10-10) so the roses won’t put out new growth in winter. How All your plants need to be well-watered the day before you fertilize. This prevents "fertilizer burn" which happens when a thirsty plant tries to drink up the liquid part of the feeding because it needs water. You can water very well on one day, then spread the fertilizer (powdered, granular, time release) or push in the spikes, or use a hose-end sprayer for a liquid fertilizer application. Then you water the ground again to help the fertilizer go into solution in the soil. –Landscaping With Roses We’ve all been raised on the idea of a group of tall hybrid tea roses as a focal point in the garden. But modern roses are moving into the landscape – as the ‘supporting cast’ for your ‘garden production’. Stiff, upright exhibition-style rose bushes are giving way to the softer look of the shrub, the shrublet, the miniature, the floribunda rose to fill out a garden border, to mask fences and walls, and to line drives, entrances, and walkways. Meet the ‘new roses’ - tough, colorful, easy to grow, and tolerant of neglect. Here are some that have recently been introduced to the gardening market: Wing Ding - a polyantha rose with a lot of ‘pop’. This shrubby rose grows to medium height (about 2 ½ ft in CA), covers itself several times a year with bright sprays of orangish-red, small blooms of 7 - 8 petals. The large clusters of blooms last for at least two weeks, and the blooms occur all over the edges of the bush - so by cutting back the old growth carefully, you can have an amazing monthly spectacle of bloom from this little shrub. It is extremely disease resistant. Good and Plenty - just like the familiar candy this shrub rose blooms in raspberry pink with white centers. A shrubby bush, the small blooms of 5-8 petals cover the edges in flushes every 5 weeks. Easy care - no diseases, lots of color. This one forms a small mound and blooms its head off every year. Marmalade Skies - prepare to be shocked! Big, fluffy clusters of screaming tangerine blooms - about 20 petals, flowers in big bunches. Sometimes so many blooms the stems bend down! Disease resistant, capable of forming a hedge, grows to about 3 ft tall, spreading habit. Golden Halo - one of the very stiff, upright miniature roses that blooms in lovely clusters of golden yellow. The small blooms look like florist roses, and often come in small clusters. Reaches about 2 ft. Blossom Blanket - this one is good for slopes, walls, cliff faces. Small white blooms of 20 petals with big yellow ‘eyes’, disease resistant, and dedicated to growing low - it covers the ground in about 3 years, giving you a carpet of blooms on a sturdy, disease resistant shrub of 2-3 ft tall. And ... it’s fragrant! Coffee Bean - what? You never had a ‘brown’ rose?? This little gem is a russet-colored miniature, with blooms that blend brown, rust, soft purple, caramel and dusty orange - all in one flower! Deep green leaves and strong disease resistance, with blooms coming every 5 weeks or so. Smoky red-orange buds open to blooms that go through color changes in the orange-brown ranges, ending dark indigo-brown. Treat your garden to a makeover - try some landscape accents – with roses! Download the most recent copy of the Rose Newsletter below wriiten by CGCI Rose Chairman Jolene Adams. Rose News-Fall 2008 "Roses: The Fall Season" Rose News-Summer 2008 Rose News- Spring 2008 Rose News- Winter 2007 Rose News-Fall 2007 .