Daily Sun’s Carol Chicchi Special
Sometimes it’s easy to find the rose you want. Chances are you know its common or scientific name, or have seen something similar in nurseries.
To hunt down the rose of your dreams, you need two tools. The first is the American Rose Society’s Annual Rose Selection Handbook. Here at his 2304 N. 3rd St. in Flagstaff, the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Office in Coconino County, he keeps one in a large binder listing roses from the Olivia White Hospice Garden. This is a valuable guidebook that allows you to refer to over 1,000 roses. Please call in advance at 928-774-1868 and come to the extension office at a convenient time.
The first few pages of the guidebook are a glossary of the abbreviations used after each rose name. These abbreviations include class (eg, Floribunda or Climber), color, number of petals, registration date, and ARS rating. Consider only roses with an ARS rating of 7.8 or higher. The higher the number, the better the rose. Make a list of all the roses in your favorite color and size from the ARS handbook.
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A mobile phone is the second necessary tool, as the ARS guidebook does not list cold hardened zones. Use your phone’s search engine to find an Internet site that sells each rose. After opening the search engine, type rosa and then the name of the rose. For example, type rosa blaze,[検索]Tap. You will see a list of nursery websites that sell this rose.
Check the cold hardiness rating of the rose. Roses need to be hardy to Zone 5 to survive Flagstaff winters. If your rose is only hardy to Zone 6 or Zone 7, leave it off the list. Next, pay attention to the disease resistance of roses to black spot and powdery mildew. If you don’t have resistance to both of these fungal diseases, take the roses off your list.
The easiest way to find the best roses on your list is to ask nurseries here in town if they have that particular rose in stock. It’s a good way to let the nursery know what’s selling.
You can also order from an internet nursery that sells roses. These nurseries include High Country Roses, Heirloom Roses, Antique Rose Emporium and David Austin Roses.
Buy at least 2 gallon size roses. Roses of this size have developed sufficient root structure to withstand transplantation. Smaller pot sizes are less expensive, but newly transplanted roses grow more slowly as they establish a root system, and smaller bushes are more susceptible to animal viewing and dry winter winds and cold.
Order at the end of winter as roses sell out quickly. We are at 7,000 feet here in Flagstaff and can stress that you need your roses delivered as close as possible to the last freeze date (mid-May), so it’s best to call the online nursery. When you receive it, water it well and plant it as soon as the ground is ready to dig.
Your detective work before buying roses will reward you with roses that are attractive and suitable for our climate.
Carol Chicchi, a Certified Master Gardener of the Coconino Master Gardener Association, has been growing roses in Phoenix for 15 years and Flagstaff for 17 years. She is a member of the Denver Rose Society, the American Rose Society, and the Durango Botanical Garden.
