Tag Archive for: showpiece roses

Tips for choosing roses

tips for choosing roses
It’s like falling in love – you know when you’ve found the right rose. But you still need to check it’s easy to grow, which this one is: the Flower Carpet® Fragrant Shrub Rose Champagne (known as the Showpiece™ Champagne rose in the southern hemisphere and Canada).

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.

tips for choosing roses
This is the original Pink Flower Carpet® ground cover rose in a setting that shows how brilliant modern well-bred roses can be. It’s easy to grow and covers itself in hundreds of blooms over many, many months. And many, many people worldwide have fallen in love with it over the years, planting it into their gardens.

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…

only 2 roses you need
Flower Carpet® ground cover roses brilliantly planted en masse in this professionally landscaped space. This is Flower Carpet® Appleblossom.

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.

only 2 roses you need
Up close you can see just how the Flower Carpet® groundcover rose manages to cover itself in hundreds of blooms. This cheery rose variety is Flower Carpet® Amber – the blooms change colour over time.

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.

only 2 roses you need
Growing lush, perfumed roses for cutting is easy when you plant a Flower Carpet® Shrub rose– this one is called Flower Carpet® Berry (or Rosa Showpiece™ Berry in the Southern hemisphere)