Roses are maybe the most famous flower, and who doesn’t love them? Roses are a beautiful addition to any garden, especially during the summer season. They can bring life and lovely scents into any outdoor living space. We all love roses, but most of us do not really know how to care for them.
Roses can be categorized into a few different groups.
Hybrid Tea and Grandiflora
Hybrid teas are the most popular and recognizable variety of roses. They are very large single blooms with a high petal count requiring winter protection. If you’ve received roses in a bouquet, it was most likely a hybrid tea rose.
Floribunda
The floribundas are derived from the hybrid tea variety. The floribunda blooms are slightly smaller and clustered along the stem with a longer blooming cycle.
Miniature
As you might assume from the name, miniatures are small versions of the larger kinds of roses.
Climbers
Climbing roses produce long, arching canes that can be wrapped around supports such as fences, arbors, trellises, etc.
Shrub
The term shrub covers a variety of roses, from bush to hedge roses. They are quite hardy and provide a lot of smaller blooms.
All types of roses are lovely, but shrub roses are an especially perfect choice for this season. Shrub roses are generally hardy, heat-resistant, and quite disease resistant also. They have many small flowers and usually bloom all season long. They require very little care, which is why we love them. A few examples are the Knockout family of roses and the Drift Rose series, and you can learn more about how to care for them here.
One of the benefits of growing these modern shrub roses is that they do not need deadheading. They are considered “self-cleaning.” These plants bloom heavily and continuously without deadheading all season long.
However, you should prune your roses to increase blooming and decrease disease and pest problems. Do most of your pruning in early spring just before new growth begins by doing a hard cut back to about a foot high. This is not necessary, but it’s best practice. The heavy cut in spring increases summer blooming and maintains the size.
There are many varieties of roses to choose from, and any would bring lovely sights and scents into your outdoor living space. If you are looking for carefree and low maintenance, consider the modern shrub rose, as they are the easiest and most hardy rose that will bloom from summer to frost and look beautiful all season long.
