From the garden
Thinking about what to give your special person for Valentine’s Day?
Roses are the most popular flower for Valentine’s Day, so maybe this year, instead of a dozen long-stemmed roses, give a different kind of rose for Valentine’s Day: a rose bush.
Sound crazy? If your special person is a gardener, they might just love your fresh idea. But don’t gift just any rose bush but an Earth-Kind rose bush, one that can bring years of enjoyment and always the memory of a lasting, if unusual, gift.
Earth-Kind is the special designation that the Texas AgriLife Extension Service gives to elite rose cultivars that have made it through the Earth-Kind landscaping program. Not all rose cultivars qualify as winners in the Earth-Kind program. Only entries that have been researched in field trials and have shown outstanding landscape performance and superior pest tolerance qualify for the Earth-Kind designation.
An Earth-Kind rose makes sense in our harsh, semiarid West Texas environment. There are many cultivars from which to choose. Earth-Kind rose cultivars are grouped into five classes:
•Dwarf cultivars: Marie Daly, Souvenir de St. Anne’s, The Fairy
•Small shrubs: Caldwell Pink, Cecile Brunner, Perle d’Or
•Medium shrubs: Carefree Beauty, Ducher, Duchesse de Brabant, Else Poulsen, Georgetown Tea, Knock Out, LaMarne, Madame Antoine Mari, Mutabilis, Spice
•Mannerly climbers: Climbing Pinkie, Sea Foam
•Vigorous Climbers: New Dawn, Reve d’Or Planting information:
• Roses need full, direct sunlight for at least eight hours daily. Position so that there is at least one foot of open space all around each bush when fully mature to ensure adequate air movement. Crowding rose bushes reduces floral display and more importantly, increases the potential for foliar diseases. Set in well-draining soil that has been amended with organic matter. Plant in holes that are several inches deeper and wider than the root ball; backfill soil to keep the crown of the bush level with the top of the soil. Place mulch around the disturbed soil.
• Keep roses moist, but not wet. Irrigate the root zone thoroughly whenever the soil surface is dry. Drip irrigation is effective in providing constant moisture while conserving water.
• Earth-Kind roses can be found in nurseries and box stores. A proven Texas source is Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham, Texas. Contact them by phone, (979) 836-5548 or their website www.antiqueroseemporium.com.
Earth-Kind information from aggie-horticulture.tamu Ellen Peffley Harp, a retired professor of horticulture at Texas Tech University, writes about gardening for several Texas newspapers.
