3 Reasons Roses Belong in Your Garden

 

Growing roses can be a truly rewarding endeavor for many reasons, including: 

Beauty and Aesthetic Appeal: Roses are celebrated for their breathtaking beauty and variety. Their lush petals and vibrant colors can transform your garden or balcony into a living work of art, evoking emotions and sparking conversation every time you glance their way. 

Sensory Pleasure: Beyond just their visual appeal, many rose varieties emit enchanting fragrances that enrich your outdoor space.  

Pollinator: Roses attract essential pollinators like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. By cultivating them, you're not just adding beauty to your surroundings—you’re also supporting local ecosystems and contributing to the health of your garden's biodiversity. 

 

There is a variety of rose bush that will fill some, if not all these goals including hybrid teas, floribundas, grandifloras, climbers, shrubs and even tree roses. 

 

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. 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 ShowBiz and Judy Garland are valued for their ability to bloom continuously.  

 

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.  Roses need to be fertilized on a regular basis.  

Even smaller spaces can accommodate roses in containers, raised beds, or narrow side yards. This can be accomplished by choosing smaller rose varieties that will stay in scale with a more intimate space. Consider hardy miniature roses such as Parade® Feline™  

 

And by utilizing vertical elements such as climbing roses and trellises will maximize the use of space available.   

 

 

Thanks to The Flower Bin Perennials Manager Billie Jo’s knowledge and expertise, all our roses are well-established and following a brief acclimation period once you get them home, 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: rose-list-2025.pdf 

 

   

 

Now’s the Time to Improve Your Garden Soil

 

Now that you’ve done your soil tests, how do you turn your high pH clay soil into something you can really grow in? 

You supplement your clay soil using soil amendments. What is a soil amendment? Soil amendments are products which help add organic material to the soil.

Adding organic material helps improve the structure of the soil, which allows better, stronger root development. Stronger root systems mean healthier plants and better yields in your vegetable garden.

Adding organic material also helps lower the soil ph. Soil pH is a measure of how “sweet” or “sour” our soils are. For most of us, our garden soils are alkaline (sweet) with high levels of ph. Our plants do better in neutral or more acidic soils, because they can better use the fertilizers and nutrients better when the pH is right. 

When it comes to choosing soil amendments, it’s important to use Colorado-based products that are specifically designed to work in our clay-based soils. That’s why we recommend and sell locally produced soil amendments and fertilizers from The Richlawn Company Organix Supply. For over forty years, The Richlawn Company has been crafting garden and lawn products specifically designed to work in our clay-heavy soils. 

Bagged soil amendments are convenient and consistent. The products within the bag are 100% organic and produced locally.

Our bagged Sheep, Peat and Compost contain aged sheep manure, peat moss and compost. Cow Manure is aged and screened dairy manure.

Natures Yield Organic Compost is EKO compost and sphagnum peat. 

How many bags do you need? A bag of Sheep, peat and compost will cover 10 square feet, 2” deep. Add up the square footage of your garden or raised beds, then calculate the number of bags you’ll need. A 100 square foot garden needs ten bags of compost to add 2” of organic material.  

Incorporating earthworm castings at this point will increase soil microbial activity and act as a mild fertilizer.  A 30-pound bag will cover that same 100 square feet, 1" deep. Typically, you’ll want to add 1" to 2" of organic worm castings to your soil each season.   

 

Take your bags home, open them up and put them in a pile. It’ll make it easier to mix all your ingredients together. So now we have this pile of amendments including a bag of Sheep, Peat and Compost, some coir, earthworm castings and we’re going to dig it all in about 50:50 with our native soil. You need your native clay to be part of the mix because clay tends to be nutrients rich in calcium, potassium and magnesium. Amended clay also holds moisture well and doesn’t compact.  

Whether you’re dealing with an existing garden, a raised bed or starting a new vegetable garden, you should plan to amend your soil annually, spring and fall to keep it healthy.

For more specific questions, stop in and talk to us. We’ll help you select exactly what you need for your garden.