How I choose Roses for my garden. Artist's perspective
When we bought our home a few years ago, I wanted to get back to growing things. I wanted flowers and plants surrounding me.. This turned out to be a massive undertaking. As I started a flower bed on the South side of our garage I realized how awful the soil was. Not only was it simply contractor fill dirt with chunks of concrete here and there, but it was full of rocks as a previous owner had covered over landscaping pebbles with more dirt and sod rather than remove them. But my husband and I persevered and I put in flowers, including several roses bushes. I’ve always adored roses. My grandmother had a huge climbing rose, a beautiful rich red color. I don’t know what kind it was - we just called it Nanny’s Rose bush, but when my grandmother moved to live behind my parents, she took a cutting and grew another rose there. Subsequently, my parents built a home further in the country, and they took yet another cutting and planted it at their newer home. Now, I think all roses are beautiful, but artists who want to use them as subjects in still life have a few considerations when choosing which ones to grow. Some things to consider would be how often they bloom, the types of blooms, color and shape. Rebloom type
Such fun.
It is a lovely thing, how roses can be propagated.
Once Blooming - Some rose varieties only bloom once and then they are gone. Many rambler roses - which are similar to climbing roses in that they have long canes only bloom once. They put on a beautiful show, but again.. Only one bloom cycle.
Repeat Bloomers - These roses bloom every 6 to 8 weeks. They will flower out in a huge flush, but then it takes time and energy for them to bloom again. If you are in a zone with shorter summers, this may mean only two or three cycles of bloom before cool weather hits.
Continually Blooming - Constant blooms. I tend to go with these. There are flushes of blooms, but they cycle faster, and with diligent deadheading, they put on a really pretty show all summer and into the fall. I had roses in Ohio in early November this year! So thrilling.
But there are other things to think about.
When I first was choosing roses, I picked a climbing rose called Zepherine Drouhin. It has tons of pink blooms all over it and blooms quite continually. I also chose a beautiful Golden Celebration Rose and a rose called Carefree Wonder. The two latter ones are bush style roses. I was pretty proud of them. However, I didn’t realize that these roses had an issue.
They aren’t suitable for cutting.
Some rose blooms shatter easily, meaning as they are cut and arranged, the petals just fall off. If you are wanting to arrange some roses in a vase, well, this isn’t a fun characteristic to have.
So, how to tell? I have been buying my new roses from https://heirloomroses.com because they have a category for cutting roses. Those are the ones you want as an artist. Trust me, get Repeat or Continually blooming cutting roses with some attention to the zone. Some roses are more sensitive to heat or cold than others - so that is something to watch.
If you use compost and peat moss and fertilize them with fish emulsion you should have many lovely roses to paint throughout the year.
I do think color and shape are more a personal choice. The tea rose type bloom may be easier to paint than the frilly blooms with hundreds of petals, but sometimes the unstructured ones are more interesting.
Well, those are a few of my thoughts on roses and what I’ve learned. I hope it will help if you are planning to grow some of your own.
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