Celebrate National Rose Month & Plant Roses for Yearround Beauty

June is National Rose Month. Celebrate by adding a few rose bushes to your perennial garden, shrub beds, and mixed borders.

The flowers, fragrance, fruit and growth habit of roses add year round interest to the landscape. Use them as specimens in the perennial garden. Shrub roses can be used as informal flowering hedges or backdrops for flowerbeds.

Use climbing roses as a backdrop for perennial gardens, as a fragrant screen for a patio or deck, or to cover an arbor. Train them along a fence or other structure.

Always select roses suited to your climate and varieties that provide the desired flower color, fragrance and plant size.

I like hardy disease-resistant roses that require minimal care on my part. The Knock Out roses fulfill this requirement and have earned a space in my small landscape. I also grow The Fairy with bouquets of small pink blooms, the robust and assertive William Baffin, and Flower Carpet roses.

A bit more information: Visit local botanical gardens, rose societies or nurseries for help selecting the best rose for you. A healthy rose makes a beautiful addition to any landscape.