Earthkind Roses: Easy to Grow and Good for the Environment

Many people believe roses are difficult to grow, but that way of thinking is like believing all children are difficult to care for. Yes, some roses are a bit finicky. But just as some children will try your patience while others are good as gold, some roses are what they call "bullet-proof" and will withstand almost any treatment. These roses quite often have been designated as "Earth-kind" roses because of their easy to grow qualities.

Texas A&M University is the headquarters, for lack of a better word, for the testing and development of Earth-kind roses. Extensive testing is done on a rose before it is designated as "Earth-kind". However, the Earth-kind label means that the rose has all of these desirable qualities: the ability to adapt to different types of soil; both heat and drought tolerant; flowers well without the use of chemical fertilizers; and pest and disease resistant.

The now famous "Knock Out" rose is an Earth-kind rose. There are twenty other roses which have earned the Earth-kind designation. Of the twenty-one Earth-kind roses, I have personal experience with nine of the roses.

Mutabilis is probably the most interesting of the Knock-out roses. The blooms on this rose are singles and have no scent but they bloom in great abundance and in such colors that they remind me of a Joseph's Coat rose. The shrub can get quite large and full. You won't regret buying this one if you plant it in full sun and give it plenty of room.

However, you might regret planting The Fairy if you live in a warm climate. This rose was too happy where I planted it and it put off little baby roses everywhere. I have never before or since seen a rose do this, but there were little underground runners of this rose coming up all over the place. I finally had to murder the mother plant. Still, I think this would be a good rose if you had a country fence which you wanted to line with roses. You could plant this rose every six feet or so and probably it would fill in quite quickly.

I have a soft spot in my heart for New Dawn. My husband built me an arbor with gift certificates we received as wedding presents, and we planted two New Dawns on it - one on each side - and they have grown to cover the top of the arbor and drip over the top. I must pat myself on the back here - I chose the perfect rose for his arbor.

Cecile Brunner is known as "The Buttonhole Rose" because the roses are small like the kind a man would wear as a boutonnière. It is a charmer and easy to grow. The climbing variety is equally easy to grow; however, I do not see it listed as an Earth-kind rose.

Belinda's Dream is probably the Earth-Kind rose which is most like a hybrid tea. It is actually a shrub rose, but it puts off large flowers which are like those found on a hybrid tea. The flowers have a rose-like scent. It is a great replacement for the much more finicky hybrid tea rose.

I acquired Caldwell Pink as a freebie from Antique Rose Emporium. I need to move some of the other things around it because it is getting crowded. Nevertheless, it is growing quite well. The pom-pom flowers are very much like carnations.

I love Seafoam! While most people grow this rose down a bank or let it ramble, I put mine in a pot and have it growing through an obelisk. It is thriving and putting out tons of beautiful white flowers.

Climbing Pinkie was a gift from a fellow gardener who likes to recycle her plants. By recycle I mean that she likes to rip things out of her garden and buy new plants ever few years. It was lucky for me that she is this way because I doubt I would have ever bought this rose otherwise. Pinkie only blooms in the spring, but oh, what a beautiful presentation she gives! She positively billows! The rest of the year she throws off canes and prepares for the next spring.

As I alluded to earlier, almost everyone has at least heard of the now famous "Knock Out" roses. I not only have them, but I have them in several different colors. The darkest pink ones, which were the original Knock Outs, bloom the best. I have some clematis planted with them and it is lovely to see the clematis twining in among the knock Out flowers. Just make sure you buy a class II a/k/a class "B" clematis because it is the only type the right size to grow up a rose without smothering it. These roses do like pruning, but they aren't picky about how you do it. Just shear them back when you're finished blooming and before you know it you'll have another flush.

From my experience, these Earth-kind roses are indeed, bullet proof. You can't go wrong with any of them. They are very easy to grow, they thrive under adverse conditions, and they don't require any special care such as pesticides or fertilizer. That is an important point now as we should all be doing our part in trying not to add any more chemicals to our already tired out earth.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/earthkind/roses/tips.html