Let's Talk "Roses."

Whether you're a new rose lover or an experienced gardener, we hope you take something helpful from this episode. What's not to like about roses?!?! Except maybe the thorns lol, that's valid!

Join April and Zoe for a conversation about color, fragrance, fertilizing, soil, rose species and much more. 

https://youtu.be/bQCObBXCRW4https://yardstopgardencenter.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi everyone, welcome back to the Arts of Garden Center podcast. We are on a ninth episode. Welcome back, April. Thanks for joining us again. Thank you for having me again. Of course. So this episode we're going to be talking about roses, and I'm actually really excited about this one because I don't know much about roses. And thankfully I do. Yeah, so this would be a good one, so stay tuned. Um so we'll jump right into it. Okay. What variety of roses do best in Florida's climate?

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Well, we have several different roses that we sell that are specialty roses, like this one right here. Um, we may get them from Dr. Huey, uh Nelson roses, and this one is from Star. These have been grafted that they will be able to grow in our heat here in Florida, so they are totally acclimated to grow and do very well and thrive in the Florida heat. Um, the other roses that we have are knockouts and drift roses, but they also grow very well in our environment. Are all roses technically full sun? Yes, they are. They um thrive more, the more sun they can have, the better they're gonna grow and the better they're gonna bloom.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Would you say that some roses are more hardy than others?

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Not necessarily. They all go through the fall time in the winter. Um, best to trim them back, and you can cut them all the way back, and they actually grow fuller back when you do that. It keeps them from getting leggy. It also helps with the blooming cycle as well for it to be a little more often. But they all thrive here, heat or the cold. You can uh take care of them in the winter time where you can make sure everything is watered really well. Cover them if you're concerned about them for the frost with frost cloth.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Speaking of cutting back, um, I know that it's probably a common question that we get here recently. When is the right time to cut back here in Florida?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Um, we just went through a really nasty freeze, which really froze things. Um, you want to wait uh three to four weeks after a freeze. You want that plant to go ahead and just sit there kind of and heal from the freeze. Um, we also suggest that you look at the weather to make sure that we're not gonna have any more frosts. Um, you don't want to trim before there's any more risk of a frost. So after there's any type of uh risk is gone from that, you can go ahead and trim them back. Nelson Roses or these, um you can cut them completely back. They just actually grow back better when you do, just kind of cut them almost back to almost nothing. They come back like fuller and look better doing that. And also, important thing to do, fertilize. After it's gone through that shock of the winter, you want to go ahead and throw some fertilizer on there. Um, we do have organic fertilizer uh espoma for roses, specifically for them. We also have our fertilizer, um, the heralds that we use on everything, you're welcome to throw that on there too. That is time-released and that will last you for three months. What type of soil would you recommend for roses? Or does it really matter? We sell a soil command soil um that will hold six times its weight in water. It also has lots of nutrients and minerals in it. So it's very good for anything that you want to grow in. We suggest that when you uh purchase the plant, since there's just sandy soil here in Florida and it has absolutely no nutrients, no, it doesn't hold water. We suggest that you dig the hole a little deeper and you put some on the bottom and put some on the sides and then go ahead and water it in. But they will grow in in they grow better in a good type of top topsoil um or garden soil, they will grow better. Um, sandy soil just doesn't have anything that it needs.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Can roses survive in a pot? Absolutely. If it's planted in a pot, you have to be on top of that fertilizer because eventually the soil will lose all of its nutrients and minerals, and you need to add to that. So that's why we suggest fertilizing in the ground and in a pot. But they will grow beautiful in a pot. So we have so many different arrayic of colors of the roses, um, and we also have a therethera of pots that um you can make a very nice little rose garden in pots that would look beautiful in pottery and different colors with the roses.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Now I don't have a flower garden myself, I've just got you know small little plants. But if I were to plant one once I feel I'm more educated on it, um would they do well with other flowers or are they more of like a alone type of plant?

SPEAKER_00 4:23

No, they can do alone or with other plants, um, and you can design a garden around that. Um, drift roses stay very low to the ground, so they have a very small bloom with a leaf, and they will spread out on the ground. Um, they will fill in any landscaping, which these and the knockout roses we use in our landscaping very heavily. Um, the knockout roses will get a little bit taller, about a foot tall, and they have those spectacular blooms as well. Um, but you can put these with any other flowers. So if you want these in the front with some taller flowers in the back, that would make a very nice landscape. Um, same thing with these, you can put smaller cut a ground cover flower in the front of those to make your garden. The specialty roses will grow taller. This is a climbing rose where they will have arms and get very tall. So you can put these with a trellis, that's what they do best. Um, they will attach to that trellis and make it look really full. If you want to make a spectacular garden with roses, I suggest that you buy these because they get much taller. You can control the size, they can get up to eight, nine foot tall, um, or you can keep them trimmed back where um they are just a certain height. Trimming does not damage, it actually helps the plant. But then you can design a lot of things in front of that rose to make it very nice and showy for your garden.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

So I was gonna ask about our climbing roses. Um, I feel like you kind of answered the fact that we do have them. Um, do we have climbing roses in only one variety? Like do we get it from one person?

SPEAKER_00 5:56

No, we get from many different suppliers. We Nelson is our biggest seller, which um a lot of people are very familiar with. They're all have a tag on them with uh a name which goes with the color. Um, so one might be named St. John, which is going to be a pure white. Um, and we get uh many different varieties of colors of those roses. We also have another large seller, is our uh Dr. Huey is another very popular one that we sell. The one that we are carrying right currently, right now, these are the star roses. Um, just another brand of them that are climbers and do very well in the environment. All of them that's uh they graft them so that they grow here. Are Nelson roses climbers? They are as well. Um they can climb, uh they're a little bit more bushier. Okay. Um, the uh star and the uh Dr. Huey's roses, they might climb to be six, seven foot tall.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

So, what is your favorite color rose out of all of them?

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Um there's a rose Nelson rose that is uh smells like lavender and rose together. It's a very light purple. It has a wonderful fragrance. I as soon as we got those in, I bought one. So that's in my yard growing. Um, as soon as I come out my door, I can smell it when they're blooming. And they're just absolutely gorgeous. Which one would you say is our most popular roses that we sell? We sell a lot of both the knockout and the drift roses. They are extremely popular because it's a good filler for people's yards. Um, many people love roses, so it's just a very popular flower. It just depends on the look that you want for your garden. The knockout and drift roses are a little less needing to take care of. So those are uh I popular items because of you can kind of put them in their yard, yeah. Low maintenance, you can put them in the yard and let them do their own thing. Right. Um, the other ones you do have to care for them a little bit more because you don't want them to get leggy and you want to clip off their blooms. Um, you want to be on top of these a little bit more. What does leggy mean? Leggy means that the uh branch keeps growing, and what happens is your bottom leaves are gonna fall off, they bloom and they go through their growth period. So leggy means that the bottom part of the plant is losing its leaves, and then you want to keep that foliage full. So that's what I mean by leggy, that you want to keep them trimmed, and when you trim them, it could just keeps the bottom part of the plant looking a lot fuller and a lot healthier. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Is there a specific variety that you have um that we sell here that are more fragrant and smell?

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Because I know some people are only after and that's why we carry the Nelsons, the stars, and the Dr. Huey's. So these ones are not as strong as the other ones might be? No. Um, and these roses, the uh star roses or nelson roses, you can use them to cut, and they do have a wonderful fragrance to them. The other roses do have a fragrance of roses, but it's not as strong as as the uh specialty roses.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Nice, okay. Are roses prone to any diseases or pests?

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Yes, roses can be prone to that, just like any plant here in Florida because we deal with the humidity. Um, we do have a rose drench that's specifically formulated for them to help with fungus and also any type of pests that might want to bother your roses.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Thanks so much for joining us for the podcast. Hope you're able to take something from this video, and we'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Bye.