A Guide to Growing Roses in Colorado

 

When it comes to flowering plants for your garden, it’s hard to beat roses. They’re hardy, reliable, they live a long time and most varieties flower throughout the growing season. Roses are available in a range of sizes, forms, and colors, which means there’s a rose for every garden.  

  

When we think of roses, it’s the hybrid tea variety that most often comes to mind. Hybrid tea roses represent an amazing pallet of color and fragrance, such as the rose pictured here: Henry Fonda.  Depend on hybrid tea roses to bloom consistently throughout the summer season.  

  

Grandiflora roses are very similar to hybrid teas. They tend to be taller and bloom in clusters rather than one rose per stem. Like all roses, grandifloras will attract pollinators. This is Strike it Rich.  

  

Floribunda roses such as Angel Face, are valued for their ability to bloom continuously.  

  

If you want to cover an arbor or trellis, choose a climbing rose. The Fourth of July is an excellent choice.   

  

  

Roses need a minimum of six hours of full sun to grow and bloom properly. Roses need a bed of their own, away from trees, shrubs and perennials that compete for sunlight, space, and nutrients. Roses need space. They don’t do well when crowded together.   

  

Roses need well-amended soils to establish strong root systems and achieve vigorous growth and bloom potential.  For the best results, use organic material that is produced locally, such as Earth Essentials Sheep, Peat and Compost or Nature’s Yield Compost. These products are formulated to work in our clay soils. 

  

Roses are available one of two ways: own root or grafted. Own-root roses are plants that start with and grow from their natural root systems. Grafted roses combine two plants. A cutting from one variety of rose bush is grafted onto the root system of a different variety of rose bush. This is done to improve plant vigor and hardiness. The area where the two varieties are joined together is called a bud union. The bud union forms an obvious bulge at the base of the rose.  

  

Each type requires a slightly different planting technique. For own-root roses, prepare the planting hole just as deep as the pot and twice as wide. For grafted roses, dig a hole 2” to 3” deeper than the bud union line and twice as wide. This is to allow room to bury the bud union 2” to 3” below the soil line. Once the planting hole is dug, fill it with water and observe how long it takes to drain. If it takes more than five minutes, add more organic material. 

  

Next, add one to two tablespoons of Big Foot Mycorrhiza or Happy Frog Steamed Bone Meal. Both these products contain mycorrhiza to encourage strong root development.  

  

Remove the rose from its pot, center it in the hole and back fill with amended soil, using enough to create a shallow basin to facilitate watering. Deep water your new roses 2-3 times a week during their first year.  

  

  

  

Thanks to the knowledge, experience, and expertise of The Flower Bin Perennials Manager Billie Jo, all our roses are well-established and, following a brief acclimation period, ready to plant.  

  

With their beautiful color and pleasant scent, roses can transform a garden and we’re here to help you make it happen.   

  

  

For a list of roses available for this year visit our webpage:  

https://www.theflowerbin.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/roselist2024-2.pdf 

  

  

 

 

Now ’s the Time to Plan Your Summer Bulb Garden

Warm season bulbs will produce some of the most dramatic garden color with minimal effort. These bulbs are very versatile. You can tuck them among your perennials to create a fuller looking bed or create a special summer bulb garden. Summer blooming bulbs are ideal in containers and will liven up your porch or deck all season long.  Summer blooming bulbs include canna lilies, dahlias, Asiatic and Oriental lilies, gladiolus and tuberous begonias, as well as freezia, caladium, calla lilies, and sparaxis.  

 

Canna lilies feature attractive green, bronze or variegated foliage, in addition to their flowers.  Cannas do well in garden beds and containers. The canna “bulb” is a rhizome.   

 

Dahlias are grown from tubers and come in a wide variety of colors. Dahlias will bring color to your garden in late summer and early fall. Dahlia blooms are especially attractive to pollinators.  

 

For more late summer and fall color, plant Gladiolus. Glads offer height and color to your landscape.  

 

Tuberous begonias make incredible displays of color in a shady spot on your patio. They can be planted in containers, hanging baskets and directly in the garden.  

 

Asiatic lilies are the hardiest of all the summer bulbs.   If you planted some last year, you may see them poking through the ground already. Once they are established in your garden, they'll produce showy blooms for many years. Asiatic lilies spread very quickly. Oriental lilies will generally survive the winter. Oriental lilies won't spread as rapidly as Asiatic lilies, but they tend to be more fragrant.  

 

Except for Asiatic lilies, summer blooming bulbs are not hardy in our gardening zone. If you want to save them year after year, they must be dug up in the fall and stored through the winter. The other option is to treat these warm season bulbs as annuals and replace them every year.  

 

That said, bulbs planted in late spring will produce some of the most dramatic colors in your summer and fall garden.  

When it comes to location, dahlias, gladiolas, Asiatic lilies and cannas grow well when planted in full sun. Caladiums will do better when they’re planted in a spot where they’ll receive morning sun and afternoon shade. Same with calla lilies and sparaxis. 

 

 

Summer bulbs tend to sell out early, so it’s best to shop now to get the best selection.