A Rose Is a Rose
Nothing is perhaps more beautiful and more touching than a bouquet of freshly picked roses with prickly thorns. They connote a virginal woman with long, sharp fingernails. If you want to be stylish yet be able to save (hey, roses are expensive), try giving just one long rose with matching long thorns. The flower is still in a bud, ready to spring forth and bloom any moment now.
To a girl this indicates that a lot of homework was done, although it didn’t cost you much as compared to a bouquet of roses. Being inventive with roses is of course, a time honored tradition with a lot of emotional history tied up to it. Richard Burton was said to have given rare, black roses to Elizabeth Taylor at the courtship stage.
You may also try growing roses in your backyard so you can alwas grab some on your way to your date. Dig a large two foot square hole, fill it up with soil, compost or half a bag of steer manure plus a cup of bonemeal.Give it rose fertilizer as per instructions on the package and keep it well watered the first summer so the roots never dry out.
Most roses need at least six hours of full sun to produce the maximum of blooms.
Depending on your needs there are roses for all occasions. AshdownRoses.com gives the different varieties from the old to the modern varieties. Just some of the old garden roses are:
A. Alba. A lovely graceful group of once blooming shrub roses. They tend to be winter hardy.
Ayr. Ayrshire. Hybrids of R. arvensis they lean towards white, are very hardy and grow in a prostrate fashion, making them terrific ground covers.
B & Cl B. Bourbon and Climbing Bourbon. Repeat blooming and sprawling in their growth habit make them perfect for pegging and pillaring.
Bslt. Boursalt. A very early flowering group of thornless, medium sized ramblers. They feature small blooms in large clusters. Some will bloom again later in the season if conditions are right.
C. Centifolia. This is the classic Antique Rose of old drawings, particularly Redoute. Also known as Cabbage Roses and roses of hundred petals they are beautiful. Once blooming they are winter hardy.
D. Damask. Fragrant is what comes to mind with this class of once blooming roses. These are the roses of pot-pourri. The shrub is attractive and the ribbed foliage adds a nice note of texture to the garden. Winter hardy.
And now, here are some of the modern roses:
F & Cl F. Floribunda and Climbing Floribunda. This is class of roses often over shadowed by the showier hybrid teas and it is too bad. As a rule they bloom heavily and make great landscape shrubs. Some are winter hardy.
Gr & Cl Gr. Grandiflora and Climbing Grandiflora. The blooms are very much like Hybrid Teas but the growth habit is taller and more upright. These are very useful landscape shrubs for against a house or at the back of the border.
HKor. Hybrid Kordesii. Repeat blooming and very, very winter hardy these are good landscape shrubs for a casual border in that they dont like orderliness.
Hmoy. Hybrid Moyesii. The species form of this created a sensation when it was introduced into cultivation in 1908 for its blood red colored flowers.
HMsk. Hybrid Musk. A unique group of roses that are very useful in the garden because of their ability to thrive in dappled sunlight. As a plant they fill out to a graceful round shape that can anchor any border.
Darius OGrady writes on behalf of
Roses http://www.rosestad.com