If you enjoy roses, you can use them functionally as well as decoratively around your grounds — as creepers, shrubs, vines, climbers, hedges or just as beds of pure color. Rose originators are enthusiastic and tireless, and every year new favorites appear. Most recently the headliners were the bright floribunda rose, Jiminy Cricket; the soft, pure-pink hybrid tea rose, Queen Elizabeth; the bright" yellow peace rose. There are over 5,000 varieties of roses in the United States, and once you start growing your own you are apt to change your preferences from season to season.
In selecting roses, it is important to get healthy plants. Stems should be green and un-shriveled, roots moist and partly fibrous. The most expensive rose is not always the best rose; it may be only a newcomer, much discussed and, therefore, a favorite.
In general, there are two types of roses: bush roses (similar to shrubs) and climbers (producing canes that require some sort of support). In the bush classification, the predominant type is the hybrid tea; it accounts for over 60% of all roses grown in America.
The other major bush types are the polyanthas (roses in large clusters), the fioribundas (large-flowered polyanthas), and the hybrid perpetuals (vigorous growers with a great crop in June and continuous blooming throughout the summer). The climbers include ramblers, whose long pliant canes have large clusters of small roses that can be used for covering walls, fences and banks. The climbers also are pillar roses, adapted to growing near buildings and on posts and the climbing hybrid tree.
For planting roses a good garden loam with organic matter is important. It must contain peat moss, leaf mold, compost, rotted or commercial manure, and the bed should be prepared as far ahead of planting as is feasible in order to allow for settling of the soil.
