Roses in my Cold Zone Garden

 

Rose 'Above and Beyond'

The allure of roses is hard to beat. 

And, I live in Wild Rose, WI. The residents here have been looking at roses for awhile, always hoping to find the best ones. I have been at this for over 20 years. I have tried the Knockouts, with limited success. They just need a bit more warmth and reliable snow cover.

In the 1960s, my village went full-bore and entered a beautification contest and redid the whole village and a park on the main drag featuring roses. They won. However, the upkeep proved vexing. Without regular water, care, and extensive winter prep the high tea roses which were predominantly chosen for this project withered and died. (There is now an apartment complex on this site.) 

Those that survived more than a handful of years: Seven Sisters and the rugosas.

This informs me as to which might survive with little care.

I have a Blaze that is the longest living rose in my garden, followed closely by the Canadian Explorer Series William Baffin and John Cabot. A white rugosa also think s it is considering world domination. A Therese Bugnet is a fairly new addition, dug up from my friend's yard. 

Rose 'Blaze'

Rose 'Blaze'

I was gifted 5 Champagne Wishes by my boss in 2021. All 5 are alive and put out quite a few roses in June and some continued bloom through the rest of the year. I cut them heavily in June 2022 for my son's wedding shower.

Rose 'Champagne Wishes'

I have also added a David Austin's Tess du Umbervilles in 2021. It is finally getting its footing now 3 years later.

My newest addition is the climber Above and Beyond.

Rose 'Above and Beyond'

Another rose I am aware of doing exceptionally well is Music Box, part of the Easy Elegance series. This one is in a friends garden. (Music box in a vase and in the garden of a friend.)

Rose 'Music Box' in a vase

Rose 'Music Box' in a friend's garden

Another view of 'Blaze'

So here's a list of what has grown well for me or I am aware grows well for others:

'Nearly Wild'

Canadian Explorer Series

'Music Box'

'The Fairy'

'Seven Sisters'

'Blaze'

'Champagne Wishes'

'Therese Bugnet'

Rosa rugosa cultivars and species

Roses 'Music Box' and 'Champagne Wishes' are both part of the Easy Elegance series, but not all roses in this series perform equally well.

I have not grown any of the Parkland series, although many in cold zones swear by this one.

I have the David Austin rose 'Tess du Umbervilles', a red climber and supposed zone 4 roes in my garden. This is the first year it has more than 1-2 blooms at the same time. It is year 3. 

One of the Canadian Explorer series climbers, either 'John Cabot' or 'William Baffin'. Bothe are the same intense pink, one is a single and one is a semi double, but otherwise hard to tell apart. 

Rose rugosa alba

June 2024

Yes, I still garden.

I have no space. I will admit my garden is over-planted. I have a serious issue with having to have "all the plants". My veg garden is off-site (not at my house), which is fraught with things I can not control. And, it's clay. My home garden is sand. There is an adjustment there! But it does get me strawberries. And in time, peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes.

This view of my garden seems so sedate. (I think this was pre-injury.)

Not so the picture I titled, "Welcome to the Jungle" recently.

Handsome son has married. Beautiful Daughter-in-law is fast becoming a good gardener. She says she wants to be a Dahlia Farmer when she grows up. Last Christmas we built a grow room and light rack set-up for her so she can prestart Dahias and seeds. Her front porch pots:

I have adjusted my gardening style to my infirmaties and work schedule. Although, I technically retired, and may be you could consider I have been retired since moving here in 2003. I do quite a bit of social media for things I am involved with or work at. WHen I pulled up my blog, I realized I have 3 unfinished posts I should probably upload covering the last 2 years! I have gone crazy starting annuals and perennials from seed. I am not sure where I am going with that. I do know the weather seems to be just crazy and the way I hunt for plants has also changed.It has given me some unusual plants.

The Gardening Twins and Baby Gardener have been joined by the Protector of the Frogs. But they have grown!

I have started growing more roses again.

I often look back to this blog to find the right picture of a plant for reference. I am amazed at the change in my garden. I grow a lot of Clematis.

My hedge still looks good as does the scree garden off my deck. ANd the peonies and lilacs are magical in their own special way.

The rain has stopped. It is out to weed. That hasn't changed.

Blooming Mid-June in Central Wisconsin

Wild roses

Clematis, I know the tag is by the root, but I will need more digging to get to the cultivar name

Clematis 'Blue Dancer' looks good out of bloom.

Close-up of the "hidden tag" clematis

Persicaria

Geranium, an alba

Lamium, 'Purple Dragon'?

Clematis Roguchi

Clematis 'Etoile Rose'

Geranium 'Tiny Monster', "Red Zinger' pinks, and a pink soapwort

Lots flowering, and it it time to weed!

"10, 9,..." and Counting: Days to Garden Walk

Not hardy here for the rebloom, but I have been wanting to see if I can grow it as
a hot house type plant and winter it over.  It is in a pot in this box planter. 
I adore the deep red hydrangeas.

Forgive me the urge to want to walk through my garden yelling, "Places, places, everyone!"  

My garden is very much a working garden with lots of fruit, salad vegetables, some few hills of potatoes to satisfy that new potato urge and a strawberry patch.  For vegetable canning, I rely on the family garden which I work on at my brother's with his children, the four-year-old Gardening Twins and Baby Gardener.

Nevertheless, I want to remind the lilies, daylilies, liatris, and the rest their big moment in the sun (hopefully partial sun-- the light is nicer, although we have had a LOT of rain this year) is coming.

Hazelnut, for the squirrels versus gardener face-off this fall

Will garden walkers realize how special these blemish-free apples truly are?

Or how ornamental Seckl pears can be?

Do you think people will see the joke in these chairs?  I NEVER sit in them.  They are actually just art.

"Clean, crisp bed lines..." even with a rock border "pull a garden together," says my neighbor Dr. Darrel Apps.  This was one of the best ideas I had to cut the grass out that tiny six inches.  I'm not sure why I never thought of that before.  The quack grass growing into my garden beds from the A.K.A. "lawn"  which is just a pseudonym for quack grass in central Wisconsin has been a pain!

My small attempt at under-ornamentation

That lavender doesn't grow well in zone 4?

Yup, they're yellow.... or will be!

That this mystery rose (maybe it's 'Eden'/Pierre du Ronsard') is a rarity here?

Clematis texensis 'Princess Diana'

Clematis buddy for my front porch climbing pink rose, overshadowed now, but the star on July 13, I'm thinking...

"Go liatris!'

Highly ornamental allium 'Summer Beauty' forming heads which will burst into loveliness...in nine days?

A zone 6 Japanese cypress and its buddy, "The Rock Cairn" hanging out.  The rocks just balance there, defying the odds and are not fastened... there is almost something magical in that I have never had to restack them.

It really has been a nice year for my clematis, some of which were early fall additions, buried very deep-- two nodules below what they were in their pots.

'The Fairy' rose in the border along the alley, forming an underplanted hedge to hydrangea 'Annabelle'.

And then it will be on to the the neighbor's across the way for garden walkers.  Dr. Apps' yard was born ready.