After meeting Stephen Scannilello and purchasing his book A Year of Roses, my love-hate relationship for the Beauty and Beast of roses turned to respect. As you may guess, the fairytale Beauty and the Beast has something to do with it.
We chat about how to fertilize and care for roses, the benefits of planting Knockout Roses, and a favored climbing rose, Rosa' Dr. Van Fleet.'
The episode wraps up an outlook on Rose Leafhoppers leading to a life lesson shared by Beauty and the Beast - one should not judge another on appearances.
Link to Related Stories:
Beauty & Beast of Roses
Rose Remedies
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Mary Stone, Columnist & Garden Designer
Garden Dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com
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Welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries.
It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So, let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about.
Thanks for tuning in, Mary Stone
Garden Dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com
Direct Link to Podcast Page
Ep 72 Beauty and Beast of Roses
Sat, 9/3 3:45 PM • 9:36
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
roses, garden, rose, blooms, dilemmas, knockout roses, beast, deadhead, plant, grower, book, appearances, leaf hoppers, climbing roses, horticultural societies, Stephen Scanniello, A Year of Roses, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone, Garden Stories, Garden Inspiration, Nature Inspiration
SPEAKERS
Mary Stone
Mary Stone 00:00
Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. I'm Mary Stone and welcome to garden dilemmas, delights, and discoveries. It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from Mother Nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So let's jump in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about.
Mary Stone 00:26
Hello, there, it's Mary stone speaking to you from a sweltering hot screen porch. I must say. I'm hoping that the sounds of the critters outside aren't too overwhelming. I still am amazed at how long the cicadas have been singing in the trees, and I think I hear crickets too. I so enjoy you visiting with me, and I can't help but comment on how many laughs I received about my brother Rick's rose dilemma pertaining to last week's episode of diehard campers when we spoke about tent caterpillars and webworms So anyway, the story of Rick's rose dilemma inspired this week's talk, which is about the beauty and the beast of roses. Yes, you may have guessed it, it has something to do with a very famous fairy tale. And it starts like this.
Mary Stone 01:18
Hello fellow listeners and readers. In last week's chat. I mentioned a hilarious story of my brother Rick in Tennessee. His roses became a feast for 10 caterpillars. Once remedied by destroying the tent, a scarlet and green leaf hopper came to feed. It brings a memory of meeting of Rosarian and American horticultural societies Book Award recipient Stephen Scannilello. I heard him speak long ago and purchased his book. Even though I have a love-hate relationship with roses. While loving the array of fabulous colors. Roses are fussy and take diligence to keep pests away. Even deer love them despite their prickliness.
Mary Stone 02:00
In his book, A Rear of Roses, which was published in 2006. Stevens described the month-a-month labor of love necessary to keep roses healthy. Do roses take 12 months a year to maintain? Yes, and no love and hate. Though after hearing him speak at a Woody Plant Conference hosted by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society long ago, I grew in admiration for rose experts, which are called rosarians. Did you know that?
Mary Stone 02:30
It's important to keep up with deadheading since faded blooms can look unsightly and breed disease. Need I say more? The good news is that knockout roses require relatively little care and flower prolifically. They push out the old blooms out of the way when a new bud forms, eliminating the need to deadhead, and are highly resistant to insects and disease. So if I were to have roses, I would choose knockout roses.
Mary Stone 02:58
So I imagine most of you know what deadheading is. I remember when I first learned the term, I thought it was kind of silly. Sounds like a rock concert, right? So, what that heading is, is cutting back the spent blooms to the next note on the stem.
May Stone 03:14
My dear friend and design colleague Marty Carson has magnificent roses I wrote about after seeing a Beauty and the Beast performance at Papermill Theatre in Millburn, New Jersey a few years back. On the way to the play, Marty mentioned how magnificent her roses are doing because of the previous year's abundance of rain. Her climbing roses are bursting with light pink blooms. She has the variety Rosa Dr. Van Fleet, which I recommend to many clients. The same is true of her knockout roses, and hers are a darker pink than the light pink blooms of her gorgeous climbing roses.
Mary Stone 03:50
Roses love lots of water and are heavy feeders, she said, meaning they like fertile soil. So, of course, I picked her brain to find out how she maintains them. And she said that she feeds her roses in early winter before the ground freezes with ProStart, which is a 2-3-3 organic fertilizer. It encourages healthy root development, and then come May, she fertilizes with pro grow 5-3-4 To boost foliar growth. Both of those products are from North Country organics, but you can seek out other organic alternatives that have those digits that relate to the composition of the beautiful fertile nutritional boost.
Mary Stone 04:28
It was my first time seeing Beauty and the Beast filled with wisdom for all of us. I bet most of you that have children have heard the story many more times than I but again, the first time was such a delight and such wisdom. The story begins with a shoddily dressed older woman arriving at a castle asking for shelter from the cold. In return, she offered a rose to the prince, repulsed by her appearance.
Mary Stone 04:54
The prince turns her away. She transforms into a beautiful woman and cast the spell How to Teach the callus Prince a lesson. One should never judge another based on appearances. The prince turns into a beast and his servants into household items. The curse can only be broken if he learns to love and is loved and return before the last petal of the rose fades and falls. As the years go by, the beast lingers in his castle, reeling in self-pity and lashing out at his help. And as time went on, the rose petals, one by one, would fade and fall.
Mary Stone 05:33
At last, a maiden searching for her father finds her way into the castle; the beast receives her rage fully and jails her for trespassing. Low frightened, the maiden boldly agrees to remain forever in exchange for her father's freedom. After dramatic twists and turns as in any fairy tale, it ends happily ever after, and the rose comes back to life.
Mary Stone 05:59
Back to knock-out roses. The shrub rows, which can be grown in zones three to nine, can be easily rejuvenated yearly by cutting them back to 12 inches high in the winter. The grower claims that they perform beautifully, even without fertilizing, then they advise if you choose to give them an additional boost, it's important not to fertilize until after the roses are established and go through one bloom cycle.
Mary Stone 06:24
The same philosophy is true, by the way, for all new plantings. fertilizing them when they're newly planted actually adds to the stress of the plant as it adjusts to its new home. And like all plants, don't fertilize late in the summer, as it will encourage new growth that could die back after a hard frost. And this is a reminder to myself because our plants here are struggling so badly. We've had very little rain this summer. And so, I have this instinct to fertilize, but it's not a good thing because we're at the end of the summer here. And so, we don't want to encourage new growth that can be frozen off.
Mary Stone 07:00
All members of the knockout family of roses are self-cleaning. So there is no need to deadhead tell to the grower's website. Of course, if you cut back the spent flowers, your roses will have a tidy appearance, but one should not judge another on appearances. Garden dilemmas asked Mary stone.com.
Mary Stone 07:21
So I was revisiting Stephen Scanniello's book A Year of Roses, and I noticed his reflection on the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens Cranford Rose Garden. Stephen lists changes in the lineup that have taken place since he's been credited for transforming the garden into an internationally acclaimed rose garden. So one of the things he noted was that knockout roses now explode in a red display in the Rose Arc Pool, replacing an old-fashioned rose that was introduced in 1925.
Mary Stone 07:51
He also mentioned leaf hoppers that don't cause a problem for me, I only have a small population. And I also suspect that they are the reason I have so many warblers in the garden during spring. While he offers up remedies such as adding beneficial insects like lacewings or using sticky traps, he recommends that you ignore them. Their damage is nothing more than a cosmetic problem. He explains that the lifecycle of leaf hoppers in the Rose Garden is short and see that so let's not judge another on appearances.
Mary Stone 08:27
Yes, indeed, Mother Nature knows what she's doing. If only more of us learn to allow the cycles of nature just be. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed our time together. I sure have. And I invite you if you haven't done so already, to subscribe to the podcast, so it magically appears in your feed. And I would appreciate more five-star ratings so more can find us. I'm not sure how that works, but apparently, it does help. And if more of us joined together, we can learn and grow in this garden of life and learn to be kinder to mother nature and our dear Earth. Thanks so much. See you next time.
Mary Stone 09:06
You can follow garden dilemmas on Facebook or online at Garden dilemmas.com and on Instagram and hashtag Mary Elaine stone. Garden dilemmas, delights, and discoveries is produced by Alex Bartling thanks for coming by. I look forward to chatting again from my screen porch. And always remember to embrace the unexpected in this garden of life. Have a great day.