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Tips for choosing roses

If you’ve ever grown a modern rose, you’ve probably wondered why some people are still nervous about growing roses? We’re talking about that whiff of fear that still lingers, inherited from a past time when there were rose specimens so fussy and delicate that they could make a stately home’s head gardener weep. Happily since then, a lot has happened. Modern rose breeders are a practical bunch, and they’ve tackled the issues that needed to be dealt with. Thanks to them we now have a list of care-free options to choose from, with the best of these being the Flower Carpet range of roses. Having said that, you do want to keep your eyes open as you pick your rose, so here are some tips for choosing roses…

1. Feast your eyes. The reason you’re planting a rose – let’s be honest – is likely to be all about the flower so take a good look around and see what leaps up and hits you in the heart. This is not an overstatement because roses are special: maybe because they are so entwined in the culture that washes around us? So make a short list of rose crushes then move onto the next step…

Just look at this foliage – no wonder it’s produced so many blooms. Do your research and relax knowing your rose isn’t going to be tricky. (This is Flower Carpet® Fragrant Shrub Rose Berry, or Showpiece™ Berry rose in the southern hemisphere and Canada.)

2. Background checks. Due diligence never hurt anyone and where roses are concerned, this is definitely worth doing. And that’s because there are still a lot of lovely old fussy roses out there being offered to people who don’t mind a challenge and uncertainty. What you want to do is take a look at each of your rose options in turn, checking that they don’t have a reputation for being difficult. Look for words like, robust, easy-care, lush, disease free, bullet-proof, and (if you’re a very new gardener) idiot-proof. If it turns out that your candidate has a dodgy performance report card, don’t be distracted by descriptions like gorgeous, delicious, luscious because if you have trouble getting the rose to grow well, you’ll probably never have a chance to see a bloom.

3. Take a hot tip. And now for the best tip of all when it comes to choosing roses. It comes from the people whose roses these are, but know that these roses have also been industry awarded and have a significant, happy following amongst un-washed gardeners around the world. Here it comes… plant a Flower Carpet rose. More specifically, plant one of the Flower Carpet® ground cover roses, or one of the Flower Carpet® fragrant shrub roses (also known as the Showpiece™ Roses in the southern hemisphere and Canada). There are five different colour options available in the fragrant shrub roses, and a further twelve amongst the ground cover roses to choose from – in other words, oodles of choice. Flower Carpet ground cover roses grow wider rather than taller, producing hundreds of smaller blooms and the Flower Carpet shrub roses are a bushy shape and produce larger blooms that are fragrant. Whichever version, Flower Carpet roses have a proven track record for being disease resistant, lush, easy to grow and producing many flowers. Of course this makes sense because they’ve all been bred by Noack Rosen (Germany) which is a hugely respected family of plant breeders.

A rose for everyone

Ever wondered why roses have always had such a big fan club? Or why the rose is cast as the hero flower in so many fairy tales? And why private and public gardens are created to be filled with just roses? (Not to be rude but have you ever heard of a daisy garden?) Yes, the rose is the accepted queen of flowers and this is why roses are for everyone…

1. Roses have lovely faces. It’s probably hard-wired in us, that we feel happier looking into a rose bloom. It doesn’t matter if it has an open face with a ring of golden stamens, or it’s a fully ruffled like a cabbage – a rose bloom stops us for a moment and makes us feel wonderful. There are rose bushes which produce several massive blooms, and others that cover themselves in hundreds of tiny cherry sized flowers. And it’s this variety of rose flower forms that makes roses all the more appealing simply because there’s a rose to suit everyone’s taste.

Some roses (like this Flower Carpet® Pink ground cover rose) cover themselves in a sea of ruffled blooms from late spring through to early autumn.

2. Roses come in many colours. From arctic white through creams, pinks, yellows, oranges, reds and violet-blues: there’s a colour option for anyone. Not to mention roses that have candy striped petals or those that change colour while they’re blooming on the bush. Roses are the flower that gives us a full box of watercolours to work with when playing around with a bit of garden planting design.

From striped petals to blooms that change colour on the bush, roses come in many colours: Flower Carpet® Pink Splash ground cover rose looks like candy and Flower Carpet® Amber ground cover rose reminds us of a medley of citrus sorbet flavours.

3. Rose bushes come in different formats, which is incredibly valuable for anyone who plants a garden. There are roses that are low and mat forming (Flower Carpet® roses), those that grow into mounded shrubs (shrub roses), others that are grafted and trained into topiary shapes (tree or standard roses), and others that grow like vines. Put them all together and you could in theory be immersed in roses with blooms at your feet, at your waist, at face level and above.

4. Roses perfume the air. Just as roses can look very different, from their flower through to the form of the plant they grow into, they also have different degrees of scent. For some, they give the breeze a light crisp scent while for others the fragrance is rich, fruity with spicy overtones. It all comes down to personal taste, but like everything to do with roses, it’s what helps make them as universally loved as they are.

The best roses

only 2 roses you need — It’s new but it looks old-fashioned. This is the easy-to-grow Flower Carpet® shrub rose Blush (or Rosa Showpiece™ Blush) in all its voluptuous, perfumed splendour.

We humans are smart enough to avoid reinventing the wheel. So when we find a great restaurant, doctor or garden rose, we tend to head back to the same source when we’re looking for another delicious night out, some good health care or lovely, bullet-proof roses. Which is why it’s worth sharing this bit of industry knowledge with anyone who already has Flower Carpet® roses growing in their garden: there’s a new fragrant Flower Carpet® Shrub rose (known as Showpiece™ roses in the Southern hemisphere and Canada) – in five great colours – created by the same rose breeder. Which means that, while the shrub cousins are a different look and style to the original Flower Carpet ground cover roses, when it comes down to being lush, healthy and super easy to grow, these fragrant Flower Carpet® Shrub roses are as wonderful as those first and innovative Flower Carpet ground cover roses, again, both thanks to Werner Noack of Noack Roses, Gütersloh, Germany. So let’s have an executive summary of each to remember why Flower Carpet ground cover roses are so universally loved, and see why their shrub rose relatives are heading steadily in the same popularity direction – and why these are the best roses and the only 2 roses you need…

The rose that brings joy: Before we get down to the nitty gritty, go stand in front of any Flower Carpet® ground cover rose when it’s mature and in full bloom and you’ll feel the joy. Firstly, because these roses are astonishing when in flower, but secondly, if the rose that you’re admiring is blooming in your own garden, you’ll also appreciate that you didn’t have to do anything to help the Flower Carpet rose produce this moment. It’s thanks to Mr Noack that we have these ridiculously easy-care roses, to which, after planting and giving them a bit of attention with a watering can for a week or two, we’re no longer needed. No pruning. No spraying for bugs or fungus. No feeding. Of course you can trim your Flower Carpet rose back if you want, but throw away your rose pruning guide and treat your rose instead like you would a leggy lavender or daisy bush. And if you want, by all means toss some slow-release fertiliser around the base of the plant in spring and then in fall. And now to the facts and stats. There are more than 10 different Flower Carpet ground cover roses available; they’re called carpet roses because they tend to grow into low, dense bushes that flatten out at about three feet once mature (professional landscapers use them a lot in massed plantings); they’ll cope in part shade but love the sunshine; established plants cope well with dry spells; and they’re happy in USDA zones five through to 10.

Old style meets today’s expectations: This is the best way to sum up the fragrant Flower Carpet® Shrub roses (also known as Showpiece™ roses). Werner Noack and his son Reinhard bred these deliberately to give us perfumed roses that looked old-fashioned, but were easy-care. Just like a lovely old house, restored with all the modern comforts slipped in behind the scenes. So when you plant a Flower Carpet® Shrub rose you’ll get what you want: a thick, bushy rose bush that covers itself in large, romantic, fragrant rose blooms. The sort you can pick to take indoors. With a Flower Carpet® Shrub rose, you’ll not only have a great looking plant in the landscape, but you’ll be gazing into the faces of classic old-world style roses, complete with the folded petals, ruffles, variation in the shades, glossy green foliage and fragrance in the air. These roses will produce the most flowers when they are planted in full sun; they don’t need to be pruned but if you do, cutting them back to a foot high will promote even more flowers. They don’t need to be sprayed for bugs or fungus, and after planting they only need watering for a few weeks to settle them in – they’ll become drought tolerant as they mature. Best of all, there are five different fragrant Flower Carpet® Shrub roses to choose from and they’re all happy to grow in USDA zones five through to 10.

How to create a magical garden

Planting magical spaces — Let things grow wild to create magical pockets in the garden. This view is of Appeltern Gardens in the Netherlands but you don’t need this much space to create the same effect.

Ever wandered into a tucked-away part of a garden, somewhere a bit less tended, where the child in you whispers, ‘this is where the fairies live’? Or have you ever wondered what was missing from your lovely manicured landscape? The answer is a wilder pocket of garden. And that’s because these spaces push different buttons and they’re very good at making smaller gardens seem so much bigger. You don’t need acres to welcome a bit of fairyland into your garden, but what you do need when planting magical spaces is the ability to let things go a little. Loosen up your style and maintenance routine and let the plants take over. If you’re willing to follow their lead, the magic will follow. Here are some tips on how to create a magical garden:

Picking a secret space: start by finding a spot in the garden that you’ll be transforming. Ideally it should feel a long way from the door and out of sight of the windows. (It’s not a coincidence that the fairies always live at the bottom of the garden because they need places where they can quickly get out of sight.) If your options are limited, consider narrow garden corridors down the side of the building or tucked between the house and the garage.

Making fairy habitat: whether you believe in magic folk or not, to successfully make part of the garden feel magical you need to create a space where you can imagine a fairy could live. You need romantic plantings. You need flowers. You need bird, bee and butterfly attracting plants. You need water. Provide all this and you have a place where fairies could be surrounded by the type of flowers that give them their names – rose, magnolia, lavender and pansy – flowers that they use to dress themselves, winged creatures to share the garden breezes with and water in a dish to reflect their lovely faces in.

Getting practical: so look at the space you have and do the following. Pull up any wide straight paths and place stepping stones along a winding route. If there are any existing plants that have been well-trimmed or hedged, let them grow out into wilder, looser more romantic versions of themselves. Then plant the following: the Fairy Magnolia® series of magnolias will form a screen from the rest of the garden and cover itself in dancing fairy flowers in spring; romantic roses like Flower Carpet® roses add a romantic sleeping-beauty-vibe to the space; lavender attracts the bees and foxgloves for the nectar eating birds; pansies will turn their whiskered faces to whoever wanders down the path. Toss in seed between the gaps to see what thrives there – poppies, bachelor’s buttons, nasturtiums, columbine – and whatever you do, think before you trim anything. The idea is you want nature to take over and work alongside you in creating this wild space where magic might just happen.

Adding magical plants like this Fairy Magnolia® Cream which covers itself in fairy-like mini magnolia flowers in spring.

Using romantic plants like lavender and roses (this is Rosa Flower Carpet® White) adds to the magical vibe, especially when you let things grow together like this.

There are three coloured Fairy Magnolias® – Cream, White and the original version pictured here, Blush.

Different locations to plant roses

Here’s a fact: a single long-stemmed red rose is a romantic gesture, but if you’re planning to declare life-long love, find a garden seat nestled beneath glorious sprays of roses. Yup – sprays of roses take romance to a totally different level. Roses that produce many blooms on each branching stem are glorious, lovely and should be in every garden. They give so many more blooms, and the way they grow in loose arcs of flowers is fairy-like and magical. To put some rose romance in our lives, we all should grow them, and here’s all the different locations to plant roses…

1. On a balcony? Yes you can grow a rose on your balcony. First, choose a large container so your rose will have enough soil nutrients and water to thrive. Then pick a robust rose that looks after itself like one of the Flower Carpet® roses. Since it will bloom from spring through to late autumn, choose the colour carefully to blend with your indoor décor. If you can’t decide between a scarlet red or lipstick pink, plant a Flower Carpet White rose which will look good anywhere as well as glow under lights at night. Plant and water as you would any plant, then as it grows, tie the flowering sprays where you want them. Over the months of flowering, trim back spent sprays of flowers to encourage more, maybe scatter some slow release fertiliser around, and when the show is finally over, give the plant a once-over hair cut to get it ready for the next spring and some more rose romance.

Rose romance — Roses and lavender are an instant way to add romance to a low maintenance garden: Flower Carpet® Pink is at the front with Appleblossom behind.

2. Up the garden path: if you have a garden then you probably have the space to create a garden path. And by a garden path, think of the type of paths we found so interesting as children. These were usually a little loose and wild, and you couldn’t see the end from the start. To make yours is simple. Pick the start and finish points, or better still, make it a loop. Mark it out so that it wends – wiggles – gently and naturally so that it’s fun to walk but not irritating. Then plant it with loose romantic plants like foxgloves, salvias and roses. Again, if you want an easy rose to grow (one that won’t demand the-big-pruning-moment or spraying to keep it healthy), then plant Flower Carpet roses. To work out what goes where you could scribble a plan, but sometimes you get the best result just by grabbing what you like at the garden centre then bringing them home and plonking them in where you think seems right. Add mulch, water and stand back knowing it will be a success because those sprays of roses will pull it all together.

3. A massed garden seat moment: this is such a fun project and all you need is a boring lawn and a bench that never gets sat on. Pick a spot on the lawn in full sun, then set your bench there. Then with stakes and string – or just a good eye – cut out a garden bed so that it forms a border around the bench. Make sure you leave the lawn under the bench, and also leave a gap in the garden bed so you can walk from the lawn to the bench. Looking at the end result, the garden bed should look like a rectangular border of turned earth sitting around the bench. Now fill the bed with romantic roses, and add in some bulbs for added fun. Because you probably want impact with low maintenance, again plant Flower Carpet roses. Mix it up and use all eleven colours or make a statement with just one. And if you want to keep things a little lower, take a look at the latest addition to the Flower Carpet rose gang – Flower Carpet Mini Cherry. Imagine sprays of cherry red roses combined with bulbs for a gorgeous display. That once lonely bench will now get a lot of use.

3 flowers for your spring garden

Hooray! We’ve turned the cold-weather corner! We’re standing in the spring sunshine! Can you feel your heart skip a beat – in a good way? Yup – it’s that time of year when the garden magic happens, and here are 3 flowers for your spring garden…

1. The magician’s bouquet: first, walk into your nearest garden centre where you’ll spot some seriously good-looking Hydrangeas called Tuxedo®. There they’ll be, sitting in their pots picture-perfect, ready to be gift wrapped and carried out the door like a bunch of florist’s flowers. You could give them to someone, but this time, treat yourself instead. Take your Tuxedo hydrangea home and pop that glorious living bouquet smack in the middle of the coffee table, or on your desk, or beside the front door and enjoy it. Then, to make the garden magic happen, a few weeks on, take Tuxedo hydrangea outside and plant it into a large container or out into the garden itself. Then stand back because it will quickly grow into a glorious, black foliaged three-foot-high bush which will give you flowers for many years to come. Your potted bouquet just transformed itself into a proper permanent garden shrub. Garden magic.

2. A shade shifter: there’s a rose called Flower Carpet® Amber. It’s pretty special even before we start talking about its magic secret, because it grows fast, stays green (USDA zones 5-10) and flowers from spring through to autumn. But what makes Amber really special is the way it looks like it’s more than one rose. To explain, just say you went out and planted Amber. After it had spent some time settling in and establishing itself, it would come into flower. And being a Flower Carpet rose, it would be covered in flowers. First the buds would swell – hundreds of them – and they’d be a lovely deep orange. These would open progressively into sherbet-shades of orange-yellow blooms. And then these flowers would settle into shades of soft pink and peach. So at any one time, the one rose bush looks like there are at least two very colour-complimentary roses growing together, one orange and one pink. Garden magic.

3. Bare earth to wow: this is the classic spring surprise moment. It’s a wonderful thing to do with children who will probably love gardens from that point on (if they don’t already). Get some bulbs – daffodils, narcissus, freesias, tulips, whatever – and gather together a container and some potting mix. Shake in the potting mix to about half way up the side of the container, and pat it down. Then have your young assistants place the bulbs the right way up across the entire surface of the ‘soil’ (use the internet to help you work this out, or if in doubt, lay the bulbs on their sides). Cover everything gently with more potting mix and again, pat it down. Then keep your pot damp (but not soggy – watch out for overenthusiastic young waterers) and have everyone keep a look out for those first, miraculous spikes of green. It only gets better as colour and fragrance follow. Garden magic.

Garden magic — If you plant your bulbs tightly together you’ll not only get a great display like these tulips, but the flowers and foliage will help to support each other.

Stop! Appreciate the foliage

Look past all those flowers for a moment and take notice of and appreciate the green foliage and nicely shaped bush. These are the flower-free reasons Flower Carpet® roses are so garden worthy.

Strange as this sounds, one of the reasons why Flower Carpet® roses have become every-gardener’s-best-friend comes down to the leaves, so sometimes we need to just stop and appreciate the foliage. That’s right – not the flowers but the foliage. Let’s be clear: no-one is saying that the flowers aren’t the main reason that the Flower Carpet rose has such a big fan club, and that’s because the flowers are the main reason. But it’s the green part of the plant that’s priceless in a behind-the-scenes way…

1. Looking healthy: Flower Carpet® roses look like they’re bursting with good health. Whether you’re standing in front of one in early spring admiring all those buds, or mid summer being wowed by the show of open blooms, or even during the colder times of the year when it’s easier to focus on the foliage, the result is the same. Pretty much year ‘round, these roses have robust, shiny green leaves that look like they’re hardly ever bothered by bugs or disease. Which is a fact, because part of the reason why Flower Carpet roses have been given awards by the rose boffins, is because their foliage is so healthy. Awards aside, it also means we home gardeners don’t need to worry about fighting off the aphids and black spot that attack our other roses. Plant a Flower Carpet rose and the battle is over before it began – we’re free to stand back with nothing to do.

2. Hanging in there: The other major bonus factor to do with Flower Carpet® rose foliage is the way it hangs around in most gardens all year around. If you’ve grown other roses you’ll realise that this is a massive tick in its favour. As gorgeous as any old style rose bloom is, there’s no getting around the fact that for a few months each year in winter, most rose plants look like wet cats. They are all bony and have no ‘fur’ aka foliage. In short, they are ugly. Not so the Flower Carpet rose. In winter, it sits in the garden as a very respectable green bush, as pretty as any evergreen shrub. Of course their wow moment comes in the warmer months when it’s flower time, but they never look as terrible as a gangly granny rose. We should say however that there are two situations where Flower Carpet roses aren’t catwalk ready: 1. the day after you’ve given your Flower Carpet rose a casual all over trim with the hedge clippers, and 2. if you live somewhere where winters encourage the menfolk to grow beards, as growing in these regions even Flower Carpet roses will decide to shed their leaves in winter.

Appreciate the foliage — The great thing about Flower Carpet® roses is that they look this good even when they are not in bloom.

3 tips for roses in your garden

Celebrity status comes with a sting. The greater your celebrity crush, the higher the pedestal you’ve built and the more unattainable the subject of your fandom becomes. This happens to gardeners who are rose fans. Being the celebrity flower since ancient times, the rose is the mega-star in the garden. Everyone knows who the rose is and there would be few people who wouldn’t want a garden dripping with rose blooms. And like most celebrities, with roses there’s a lot of rose myth and gossip going around, enough to make anyone new to gardening roll their eyes and run screaming from the garden centre in fear. So here to help us all grow famous roses beautifully are 3 tips for roses in your garden…

1. Roses are just plants: they may be the queen of the Plant Kingdom but they are just green growing things like every other plant. Which means that if you know what plants need to grow happily, then you’ve got them sorted. They want sunlight, fresh air, water and soil. So when you pick a spot to plant your new rose, look up and around and if it seems like a sunny, airy spot, go for it. Start digging the hole and if the soil looks a bit unappetizing, dig in some compost to lighten things up a bit (maybe buy a bag from the garden centre). Then once your plant is in the ground, water it in well and set a reminder on your phone to water at least once a week for a few weeks (more often if it’s hot).

2. Side-step the bad roses: there are lots and lots of roses to fall in love with but sadly, just like people, there are some impossibly beautiful varieties that are hard work. Keen horticulturalists who love a challenge are happy to tend to these fussy princesses but even these gardeners will often weep over too few blooms, chronic aphid infestations and the dreaded black spot. So the best approach for most of us is to be tough at the beginning and only plant and tend roses that aren’t fussy (check out the Flower Carpet® roses). I mean – seriously – who needs stress in the garden? If we pick roses that the industry gives the Big Tick, our efforts will be consistently rewarded.

Pick an easy to grow rose like these Flower Carpet® roses and you won’t be bothered by pests, diseases or the need for fancy pruning.

3. Pruning is scary: no it isn’t. Even if you have an ancient rose bush that your great aunt has asked you to prune, it’s hard to go far wrong. Use clean secateurs or loppers. Take two thirds off or just give it a light once-over. It’s a green hair cut and like hair, it will grow back. And each time you prune, you will have the confidence to play around a little more. There is only one tip to keep in mind: most rose bushes are a splice of one rose for the root section and one for the bush above. Without getting too far into the science behind grafted roses, it’s good to know because you want to keep your pruning above the bulgy graft mark on the main stem of the rose bush or you might lose the fancy rose that blooms on the top. And if you spot some serious sucker shoot coming out of the bottom bit – make sure you take them off. Having said all that, if you grow a rose like Flower Carpet® roses you don’t have to think about any of this because these roses are grown on their own roots – they are all one single plant so you can cut them wherever you like.

This is what a traditional graft looks like – the point where one type of rose root stock grows downwards into the soil and the other type of gorgeous flowering rose grows upwards into a bush. Tip: don’t cut everything off above this line or you’ll lose the fancy rose on top.

How to care for your roses

You love roses. You’d love to grow your own roses, but you’ve heard roses can be tricky. Here’s some rose tips, so you can learn how to care for your roses, starting with tip number one…

1. The right spot: it’s a basic move and it makes sense. Roses prefer a sunny spot so put them in a sunny spot. Whether you’re planting them into a garden bed or dragging a planter into position, make sure there is plenty of sunshine for your new roses. The science behind plants means the more hours of sunlight, the more flowers you’ll be enjoying. The plants will also be bushier and healthier. So don’t fight the science – plant where it’s sunny.

2. The right rose: it’s a sad truth but many roses can be disappointing. They might not produce many flowers, and these may only appear over a few weeks. The plants themselves can often be an ugly shape as well as being prone to pests and diseases. (Do black spot and aphids ring any bells?) The best move then is to only grow roses that are disease resistant, bushy, and long flowering. To see what this looks like, check out the Flower Carpet® roses as a start.

rose tips for pruning — Looking after an easy rose like the Flower Carpet® rose means pruning is as simple as this dotted line – a fast cut back once a year.

3. No fuss or bother: keep plant care simple and manageable and success will follow. If you’ve followed rose tips 1 and 2 you’ll have picked the right rose, planted it in the right spot, and maintenance will be a breeze. Once a year you’ll cut your rose bush back (before winter). In spring you’ll toss a handful of fertiliser around each plant. And if your summer ends up being a bit dry you may do a bit of watering.

4. Maximise the rose vibe: if you’re growing roses it’s because you love roses. And with these tips on how to care for your roses you know which ones to plant and how to grow them with no effort. If you have acres of land, you can grow lots of roses massed in glorious beds. And if you have a tiny patio, you can still get that surrounded-by-roses feeling but you’ll need to be more strategic. Plant a rose that will flower for the longest period (this is probably the Flower Carpet® roses mentioned earlier). Fill three large planters with them and keep up the water and be sure to fertilise in spring. Arrange the planters so that your outdoor seating is surrounded, then when you sit down you’ll be neck deep in rosy blooms.

Tag Archive for: flower carpet roses

Tips for choosing roses

A rose for everyone

The best roses

How to create a magical garden

Different locations to plant roses

3 flowers for your spring garden

Stop! Appreciate the foliage

3 tips for roses in your garden

How to care for your roses

The best flower for containers

How to prune your roses

12 easy ways to landscape using roses

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