It’s raining again. I suppose I should not be complaining after three years of drought, but all this rain presents its own sort of problems. Like being unable to get outside to weed or just enjoy our gardens. Or the fact that irises do not like “wet feet” and rhizomes are getting mushy and rotting. And the weeds are thriving too! Oh well, looking on the sunny side (when there is one) I don’t have to spend all my outdoor time watering and the gardens are looking far more lush than they have for the last few years. Just as the spring garden started waning the summer garden burst into bloom.
One of the things I enjoy about my garden is that there always seems to be something blooming, bringing shouts of color, from spring through fall. I spoke about my spring garden in the last Camden News. It is not in a particular area of the garden, but all the plants are in various parts of my gardens that bloom in the spring.
The same is true for my summer garden; things are opening up all over. I am renovating the garden in the front of the house because the loss of our elm tree several years ago has turned it from a shady site to a sunny one. Right now the clematis is covered with the most blooms I have ever seen, and I have planted several delphiniums that are about three feet tall and blooming profusely. I planted 10 gladiola bulbs last month and they are all pushing up, although they won’t be blooming for a while. On the boulevards yellow ox-eyed daises are starting to flower along with the orange butterfly weed, the purple salvia and catmint, and the orange and yellow blanket flowers. Several coneflowers and some Asiatic lilies are ready to pop soon. On the side of the house pink and white peonies are just winding down. But the most prolific bloomers this year have been the roses in the side yard and the back garden.
We can grow tea roses and floribundas in Minnesota, but these varieties of roses require a great deal of care and protection to survive our winters. The “Minnesota Tip” is one method of protecting tender rose bushes from our harsh zone 4-5 winters. It is the method developed in the middle of the last century by a long-time member of the Minnesota Rose Society and used at the Arboretum. It involves digging a trench alongside the rose bush, loosening the soil around the roots and laying the rose bush down in the trench. The bush is then covered with soil and spends the winter protected beneath the soil. This process is usually completed by October 15 at the Arboretum, and “rose lifting day” is six months later, around April 15.
An excellent alternative for someone who would like to have roses, but is not up to the work in protecting them, are the hardy shrub roses. Shrub rose is a catch-all category for all roses that don’t fall into another category. Generally they are shrubby plants with increased winter hardiness and improved disease resistance. Some are repeat bloomers and some bloom once in early summer. Being winter hardy means that the roses will survive the winter without protection. They may suffer die back to the snow line or even to the soil line, but they will send out new growth in the spring from the old wood or from the crown. In June my hardy shrub roses burst with blooms of pink, yellow, red, white and rose. Most of my roses, Champlain, Henry Hudson, Hansa, John Cabot and the prolific climber, William Baffin are part of the Canadian Explorer series which was developed to be hardy in zones 2-4, but there were dozens of hardy shrub roses which range in color from white, pink, rose, yellow, purple red and deep purple.
Hardy shrub roses are becoming very popular in our zone and further north so you should be able to find a nice selection at most area garden centers. You can plant them anytime during the growing season but the sooner the better. If you purchase and plant one soon you should be able to enjoy the flowers this year – the prime time for roses in Minnesota is June, but many will continue blooming into July. Enjoy.