Roses for Thanksgiving

Articles in this Topic Discussions in this Topic

Oct 10, 2000

Snow has already fallen in Calgary; frost has devastated the flowers in the B.C. interior, but I'm inhaling the intoxicating scent of a vase of beautiful, fresh-cut roses as I listen to the weather reports from around the country. One of the things I love about living in the Lower Mainland (Zone 7b) is being able to enjoy the splendid fragrance and colour of blooming roses deep into fall. In fact, in some years, I've even been able to use freshly cut roses as a centrepiece for my table at Christmas!

This is especially astonishing when you consider that I don't grow any of the "rugged" rose varieties such as Rugosas, but only "tender" varieties, such as Hybrid Teas, English roses, climbers and miniatures. Yet as I write this, in mid-October, many of the roses in my border are still blooming madly. While we tend not to think of roses as "fall' flowers, a great many of them will provide excellent colour for fall beds and for cutting.

Pick the Right Roses

If you want to enjoy the beauty of roses in fall, the first thing you have to do is pick the right roses. Look for roses that are repeat-flowering; these are the roses that will produce blooms from late spring through fall, unlike roses that bloom in flush and are over for the season.

As there are roses of almost every type that fit the repeat-flowering criteria, you'll probably also want to establish some other selection guidelines. My main selection criteria is appearance; I like roses that look like roses are "supposed" to look, which is why most of my roses are Hybrid Teas. But in this rainy climate, I also like to choose roses that have the best chance of not disappointing me, so after I'm done oohing and aahing over a rose's classic high-centred, huge, brilliantly colored blooms, I try and find out if the rose is disease-resistant and rain-resistant. Some rose blooms "ball" in rainy weather, turning into sodden lumps that never do look anything like their pictures. Other varieties have known disease problems, such as susceptibilities to black spot and mildew. I always try and choose varieties that are resistant to these, as I don't want to spend any more time than necessary spraying or applying controls. I want a rose with fragrance; scent has been bred out of a great many roses in favor of bigger, better blooms, but I believe a truly great rose has to have both. And I want to know a rose's track record; what do the experts think of the rose's performance and has it won many (or any) awards?