Gone Gardenin’ – Everything’s coming up ‘Rotary’ roses

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/04/2012 (5295 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Plants and/or flowers seem to have caught on as a method of fundraising for charitable organizations.

Many people cannot resist purchasing lovely flowers or beautiful flowering plants when combined with the opportunity to help a worthy cause. The Dragon Boat Ladies sold poinsettias for several years while the annual daffodil campaign of the Cancer Society has just ended.

Coming up is another charity drive focusing on plants. The Rotary Club of Brandon is going to be selling hardy roses and all proceeds will go to the Rotary Westman Foundation.

They are selling four different hardy roses, and the deadline for ordering in May 4. Contact numbers are: 728-4838 and 727-0699.

The roses the Rotary Club is offering are among some of my favourites. Let’s look at them.

Felix LeClerc

Part of the Canadian Artists series developed by Ag-Canada, and named after a famous Quebec artist, Felix LeClerc is a vibrant pink climbing rose. At one to two metres in height, it is a well-behaved climber. In zones 2 and 3, winter dieback can be expected.

Like most roses, it needs at least five hours of direct sunlight per day and requires good drainage. Its bright pink blooms are produced in clusters. It is disease resistant.

Bill Ried

Another Canadian Artists series rose, this one is named after a Canadian artist who works on the West Coast and incorporates many aboriginal characteristics into his art. Good hardy yellow roses are somewhat uncommon so this vibrant golden variety will please many people.

The golden blooms do not fade as they age as is the case with many yellow roses. The blooms are single, open-faced and quite delightful. It is a prolific bloomer.

At 90 centimetres in height, Bill Ried is a compact rose that will be at home in a rose garden or a perennial bed. Disease resistance has been bred into many of the recent hardy rose strains and this one is no exception as it is relatively disease free.

Winnipeg Parks

This hardy rose happens to be my very favourite hardy rose. It is a member of the Parkland series developed at Morden Research Station before the federal government discontinued the rose program there.

I think its blooms more nearly resemble tea rose blooms than those of any other hardy rose. The blooms are cherry red and fully double — in fact, they have the typical pointed form of a tea rose bloom when they first open.

Resistant to black-spot and mildew, and fully hardy in our zone, Winnipeg Parks will never look back once it gets established in your garden. Its leaves also resemble those of the tea rose, being shiny, dark green with a tinge of bronze, and perfectly formed.

At one meter, this rose never gets rangy and is sometimes used as a short rose hedge because of its compact, dense growth habit. Most of the blooms are produced singly on long stems, so it is a perfect rose for cutting.

Morden Fireglow

Another member of the Parkland series, Morden Foreglow has vivid double orange-red blooms that have bright scarlet reverses. Indeed, the blooms seem to be on fire when the sun strikes them.

Clusters of five blooms are produced on each stem, each bloom being about seven centimetres wide. The dark green foliage is similar to that of Winnipeg Parks and its growth habit is compact.

Hardy roses have become a mainstay of prairie gardens since their development. They require little care, are disease free, and require no winter protection — although some gardeners feel they get better performance and earlier bloom if they cover the bushes in the fall with some dry leaves covered by a Styrofoam cone to keep the leaves dry and to add a bit more insulation.

I hope my description of these four “Rotary” roses will help you make your choice if you decide to participate in this charity drive. One can never have too many roses in the garden!

Albert Parsons is a consultant for garden design and landscaping who lives in Minnedosa.

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