Don’t be afraid of growing roses

Last Updated on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 10:20 Written by Phillip Tuesday, 8 March 2011 10:20

Lena

Often when I suggest roses as part of a customers landscape, I get that look. You know the one….the face scrunches up and a slight scowl comes on! Many peoples first reaction to roses are “fussy, high maintenance plant”. That is true of many of the old fashioned roses. Today’s  roses have been developed for the type of people who garden today. Bailey Nurseries have been a leader in developing roses that perform in an average homeowners landscape. Lets face it, most homeowners put plants in their landscape and don’t want to mess with them ever again. The Easy Elegance series of roses were developed to do just that.

Now Baileys offer another line of no fuss roses developed by the University of Minnesota. These roses have been developed to not only grow, but to thrive in the tough climate of Minnesota. This series is called  ‘Northern Accent’….a fitting name for these plants. The first of this series released to the public were called Lena, Sven and Ole. Maybe to the rest of the country these are just names, but to us here in the upper Midwest these names immediately evoke a smile. We have all been raised here in the middle of Scandinavian descendants, on Ole and Lena jokes. While these roses can make you smile, they are certainly no joke. Now there is a new rose added to this series, called ‘Sigrid’. While Ole and Lena are different shades of pink and Sven is luscious mauve color, their cousin Sigrid is a true red. As you can see by the pictures these are polyantha roses. Which means they produce blooms in clusters. These roses have performed beyond my expectations in the garden. They are continually in bloom and have shown no  sign of any disease or insect problems. I am looking forward to adding Sigrid to my garden this spring!

Sigrid

Happenings at Viola Nursery, Oct 9th 2010

Last Updated on Sunday, 10 October 2010 04:40 Written by Phillip Sunday, 10 October 2010 04:40

Wow what a busy week. Nate and his crew had another small landscape job, early in the week. This included a tear out of some existing junipers and a mugo pine. The homeowners had just installed a concrete driveway, with a new slope. With the change in elevation of the driveway we needed to install a couple of short retaining walls to help match up to the existing lawn and landscape. With these walls installed we planted 2 “All the rage” roses, with Stella D’Oro daylillys on each end of the roses. This created what the homeowners were looking for….more color, without blocking the front step.
The weather this week has been unusually warm this week. With this Indian summer weather, customers were here in full force. They were getting everything from Mums and pumpkins for fall decorating, to plants for landscaping. Because I am a recycling drop off garden center for the MN Nursery Landscape Assoc., we always get a surge of people bringing used containers for recycling. The recycling center in the twin Cities is now closed for the season, so I need to hold these containers until next spring. In between customers, I had trucks delivering some of next Springs supplies. With the delivery of supplies (soil, hanging baskets, pots,etc) it was time to clean out and reorganize my sheds.
Friday evening I set up for a wedding in a nearby town. With a Fall theme, this was a fairly easy set up. Scheduling for delivery and set up is usually the hardest part of weddings. I will have to admit though….weddings are one of my favorite things to do. Everyone is usually in a happy, festive mood and they always seem to appreciate the color and life that plants bring to their celebration.