The Portland Rose Festival's centennial celebration has begun. Northwesterners weren't the first to celebrate this flower: ancient Greeks wrote of its virtues and Cleopatra scattered rose petals when entertaining Marc Antony.
With the rose as much of a Northwest tradition as good coffee, here are some ways to "do as the Romans do" to add a little rose to your life, yard or garden:
Plant this year’s festival rose
Royal Scepter is the official rose of the 2014 Portland Rose Festival. Named for the scepter the first rose queen carried in 1914, it’s a white, fragrant hybrid tea rose (long stem, one bloom per stem). It is available only at Dennis' 7 Dees garden centers.
Like most plants in your yard or garden, when roses get what they need, they’ll thrive without the use of toxic chemicals. Start with these basics:
- Choose a disease-resistant variety.
- Plant in a location with at least six hours of full sun.
- Give the rose plenty of ventilation.
"Most roses are hybridized to be disease-resistant," says Ryan Miller of 7 Dees.
However disease-resistance ratings are based on national trials. So before you buy, find out which varieties are best suited for growing west of the Cascades, with our cycles of deluge and drought.
Eat your roses
Native roses, like the Nootka rose or bald-hip rose, are probably the easiest route to a toxin-free rose garden if you plant them following Carl’s video tips above. Birds love their protective thickets and nutritious rose hips.
You can also eat the hips, and the petals too, when you grow your roses organically. Ever had pickled rose petals, or rose petal ice cream? Add petals to a salad, or make jam from the hips. Flavor varies with the type of rose.
Enjoy bouquets from now until frost
Mary Ludlum, of Beaverton’s Farmington Gardens loves to sell Knock Out roses to new gardeners. This rose comes in just about every color, with bronze new foliage that transitions to glossy green leaves.
Knock Out is a floribunda – roses that grow in clusters. With these “prolific and florific” flowers, Mary says, “You can get a whole bouquet on one stem.” You can plant them as a hedge, but as is true of all roses, they need ventilation to prevent fungal diseases.
Their biggest selling point, Mary says, is how easy these roses are to care for. “They’re self-cleaning,” she says. Petals fall off after they bloom. Lop off spent blooms to force another flush. “I can make four to five flushes a year,” Mary says. “It’s not unusual for me to cut flowers at Christmas.”
Try a miniature in a pot
For a small garden or a pot, Mary recommends an upright miniature like Sun Blaze or Yellow Sun Blaze, another variety that yields a bouquet with one cut.