When Trialing Roses You Have To Be Ruthless

I have managed large public rose gardens. I worked for a nursery that grew over  a million and a half bud and bloom, container roses per year. I have been an (AARS) All American Rose Selection judge. I specified roses as a landscape designer. So when it came time to develop a new line of roses I knew that I had to be ruthless. I needed to create a testing system that separated the wheat from the chaff.

Fellows Riverside Gardens, Rose Garden in Youngstown, Ohio

When growing finished roses for a nursery, it because quite clear that the roses in two and three gallon pots had a limited shelf time. With each passing week foliar diseases became a greater problem, even though we sprayed them with fungicides once a week. The daily overhead watering and the tight spacing were ideal conditions for black spot and mildew. So when developing our new trialing program, container trails with overhead watering was the first step, except we would not use any fungicides.

Greehouse container trials with overhead watering and no fungicides

Ringo® Double Pink was a standout in our container trials

As a rose garden manager, it was clear that over time a rose garden, that is not rotated, accumulated a bank of fungal spores that would infect our clean, newly planted bushes. The first year the roses looked fine, but in year two the disease took hold. That is why I do no rotate our rose trial beds. That is why we look at them for three years in the garden before we make any decisions about which plants to introduce. And of course we never use fungicides.     

Drone view of our trial garden 

Oso Easy® Double Pink was a clear winner in our garden trials

We get trial roses from about five different breeders and every one goes through this process. The odds are most selections will be trashed after two years. Any plant that show disease is remove from the trail. Our goal is to throw them away as quickly as possible to make room for new selections. If I can find one rose variety out of a hundred that remains clean, looks good in the container and in the garden, flowers repeatedly and is better than what's on the market I am happy. Here are few of my favorites that have passed the test and made our catalog.

At Last® - The fragrant blooms just keep on coming 

At Last® rose combines all the romance of a fragrant, fully-petaled tea rose with the no-nonsense practicality and vigor of a landscape rose. Enjoy a non-stop display of large, sweetly perfumed orange blossoms from late spring through frost. Handsome, glossy foliage and a vigorous, rounded habit makes it ideal for use in the landscape or flower garden. Developed by Colin Horner of England.

Oso Easy® Double Pink creates a blanket of rich pink blooms

Oso Easy® Double Pink -  Excellent disease resistance and abundant, continuous blooms set this low mounded, ground covering rose apart from the crowd. Ten or more double flowers are produced per stem, creating a cheerful mass of rich pink all summer. Glossy, dark green leaves add to its appeal. Developed by Meilland International of France. It has gone on to win a Gold Medal in the Baden-Baden Rose trials, the ARS Best Shrub Rose in Ground Cover Form, and the Medaille d' Or in the Concours International trials in Nyon, France.   

Oso Easy Double Red has gone on to win over 10 trialing awards

Oso Easy® Double Red - A floriferous rose with tulip-like doubled blooms. Dark, disease-resistant foliage, and a sturdy, rounded habit. Flowers are held well above the foliage, providing a distinctive, showy look. Developed by Meilland International of France, this rose has already won ten awards including the 2020 Rose of the Year, the Bagatelle Rose Trials 1st Prix, Prize of the Public and Certificat de Mérite; Le Roeulx Rose Trials Gold Medal; Lyon Rose Trials 1st Prize and Prize for Rebloom and Disease Resistance; Monza Rose Trials City of Monza Prize and Gold Medal plus four others. This is a must grow landscape rose. 

Oso Easy Enfuego™ is a warm rose that changes colors

Oso Easy En Fuego® - A show stopping new rose with all the bright colors and fun of a Mexican fiesta. Super clean, glossy, dark green leaves are the backdrop for nonstop blooms and fiery hues of yellow, orange, and red. If ever there was an impulse plant, this is it! Hardy and heat tolerant, it has been a standout performer in both Michigan and Florida trials. Another great plant hybridized by Chris Warner of the UK.  

Oso Easy Ice Bay® has super dark green and pure white flowers 

Oso Easy Ice Bay® - “Simply beautiful” are the first words that will come to your mind when looking at this pure white rose. Incredibly effective in the landscape, its beauty lies in the simplicity of its flowers and their large silky petals. Hardy and heat tolerant, this rose keeps its beautiful dark leaves and bright flowers until the late autumn. While a single specimen of this special rose is enough to draw attention, it’s especially unforgettable as a mass planting.        

Oso Easy Peasy® is one of the very best, ground covereing landscape roses

The 2024 Rose Of The Year and the winner of the 2017 American Rose Society Award of Excellence in the No Spray division, this rugged beauty sends continuous sprays of vivid pink flowers from early summer through frost. Developed by the award winning rose breeder, David Charles Zlesak. It is Easy Peasy!

Ringo® Double Pink is perhaps the best Persica hybrid to date

Ringo® Double Pink - Ringo roses glam up the garden! Developed with the extraordinary talent of the UK’s Chris Warner, this series provides disease resistance, durability, long bloom times, and the novelty of colorful flowers that not only sport a bright ring in their center, but transform in tone as they age. Ringo Double Pink is a cheerful, pure pink rose with loads of semi-double flowers accented with bright yellow stamen surrounded by a distinctive wine-stained eye. More than just a pretty face, it is also very hardy, with glossy foliage that exhibits excellent black spot resistance. Winner of the First Class Certificate at the Hague Rose Trials.  

Rise Up Lilac Days® has a wonderful, intense fragance

Rise Up Lilac Days® - Breathe deep: the fragrance of this nearly thornless rambling climber is both alluring and enchanting. Waves of lovely lilac flowers arrive through the season in bouquet-like clusters. Perfect for scrambling up arches and fences. The romantic semi-doubled flowers continue right up to frost and its glossy, dark green foliage has shown superb black spot resistance. Great as a cut flower as you can see below. Developed by the extraordinary talent Chris Warner of England.  

The End - Thank you for visiting and tell a friend

Replacing Roses Affected by Rosette Disease

Time after time designers, landscapers, municipalities and homeowners overuse certain plants to the point of making them a monoculture and then an insect or disease comes along and wreaks havoc. We’ve seen it with elm trees, ash trees and now we are seeing it with landscape roses. Rose Rosette Disease (RRD) is now knocking out landscape roses particularly in the South. The virus is spread by a tiny eriophyid mite that has an association with multiflora rose, so the disease is likely to intensify throughout the Midwest in states where multiflora rose has naturalized.  At the moment there is no cure for Rose Rosette Disease, so infected roses need to be destroyed and replaced with something other than roses.

Roses infected with Rosette Disease look like they've been sprayed with herbicide

While almost all roses are susceptible to RRD, a few specific landscape rose varieties have been hit particularly hard because of their popularity with landscapers and their use in larger mass plantings. The popular question now is what shrub should be used to replace these roses? First off, we should not replace these infected roses with just one single species or cultivar lest we tempt fate once again. We should be looking at multiple species and cultivars, particularly those shrubs that offer similar characteristics that made these roses so useful and popular in the first place.   

Conceptually, the type of shrub landscapers and designers are looking is colorful, carefree, is long blooming or has season-long interest, looks good as a mass planting, thrives in full sun and is less than five feet tall. There are a number of shrubs that meet that criteria and here are some of the Proven Winners® shrubs that fit the bill.

Abelia – Full sun

Long blooming shrubs, many with colorful foliage and fragrant flowers.

               Bronze Anniversary™ - 3-4’

               Ruby Anniversary™  - 4-6’

               Sunny Anniversary® - 3-4’

               Pinky Bells® - 3-4’

               Fairy Dance™ - 2-4’

Ruby Anniversary™ Abelia chinensis

Aronia – Chokeberry – Full sun

Low Scape® Series - A tough native with white spring flowers, glossy foliage and exceptional fall color.

                              Low Scape® Hedger - 3-5’

                              Low Scape® Mound - 1-2’

Lo Scape® Mound Aronia in autumn

Azalea – Rebloooming – Full sun to partial shade

Bloom-A-Thon® Series - Compact evergreen shrubs with showy flowers that appear in the spring and fall.

Bloom-A-Thon® Hot Pink – 3.5-4.5’

Bloom-A-Thon® Lavender – 3.5-4.5’

Bloom-A-Thon® Pink Double – 3.5-435’

Bloom-A-Thon® Red – 3-4’

Bloom-A-Thon® White - 2.5-3’

Bloom-A-Thon® Double Pink Azalea

Berberis – Barberry – Full sun

               Sunjoy® Series - Tough, easy to growing shrubs with colorful foliage. 

          Sunjoy® Cinnamon - 4-5’

Sunjoy® Citrus - 2-3’

Sunjoy® Gold Pillar - 3-4’

Sunjoy® Syrah - 4-5’

Sunjoy® Tangelo - 3-4’

Sunjoy® Series of Barberry

Buddleia – Dwarf Butterfly Bush - Full Sun

Continuous flowering, low growing shrubs with colorful, fragrant blooms.

               

          Lo & Behold® Series – Dwarf, sterile shrubs that come in a wide range of colors.

Lo & Behold® Blue Chip - 2-2.5’

Lo & Behold® Blue Chip Jr. - 1.5-2.5’

Lo & Behold® Ice Chip - 1.5-2’

Lo & Behold® Lilac Chip - 1.5-2’

Lo & Behold® Pink Micro Chip - 1.5-2’

Lo & Behold® Purple Haze - 2-3’

Lo & Behold® Pink Micro Chip

Miss Series – Semi-dwarf shrubs with vibrant colored, fragrant flowers.

               'Miss Molly' - 4-5’

               'Miss Pearl' - 4-5’

               'Miss Ruby' - 4-5’

               'Miss Violet' - 4-5’

Miss Violet Butterfly Bush

Pugster™ Series - Dwarf shrubs with large flowers with a wide range of colors.

                    Pugster™ Blue - 2’

Pugster™ Periwinkle - 2’

Pugster™ Pink - 2’

Pugster™ White - 2’

Pugster Blue™ Butterfly Bush

Ceanothus hybrids – New Jersey Tea - Full sun

               Marie Series™ - Drought tolerant shrubs that thrive in poor soils.

                              Marie Bleu™ - 2-3’

                              Marie Gold® - 2-2.5’

                              Marie Rose™ - 2-4’                  

         

Marie Blue™ Ceanothus

Clethra alnifolia – Summersweet - Full sun to partial shade

Easy to grow native shrubs with later summer, fragrant flowers and yellow fall foliage

               Sugartina® Crystalina - 2.5-3’ 
               Vanilla Spice® - 3-5’

Sugertina® Crystalina Summersweet

Deutzia gracilis – Slender Deutzia - Full sun to partial shade

Yuki® Series – Tough, ground covering shrubs with abundant spring flowers and burgundy fall color.

                              Yuki® cherry Blossom - 1-2

                              Yuki® Snowflake - 1-2’

Yuki Cherry Blossom™ Deutzia

Diervilla – Bush Honeysuckle - Full sun to partial shade

          Kodiak® Series – Tough, native shrubs with colorful spring and autumn foliage.

Kodiak® Black - 3-4’

Kodiak® Orange - 3-4’

Kodiak® Red - 3-4’

Kodiak® Orange Diervilla

Hibiscus syriacus – Dwarf Rose of Sharon or Althea - Full sun

               Lil’ Kim™ Series – Dwarf series from Korea with colorful, long blooming flowers.

                    Lil’ Kim™ White - 3-4’

Lil’ Kim™ Red - 3-4’

Lil’ Kim™ Violet - 3-4’

               PollyPetite™ - 3-4’,  A sterile, dwarf hybrid with a large clear lavender blooms

Pollypetite™ Hibiscus

Hydrangea arborescens – Smooth Hydrangea - Full sun

               Lime Rickey® -  4-5’, Attractive green flowers

               Incrediball® -   4-5’, Large flowers emerge green, turn white and age to green.

               Incrediball® Blush -   4-5’, Large lavender-pink flowers on strong stems.

               Invincibelle® Series – Compact/dwarfs with strong stems, wide range of colors.

                    Invincibelle® Limetta™ - 2.5-3’

Invincibelle® MiniMauvette™ - 2.5-3’

Invincibelle® Ruby - 2-3’

Invincibelle® Spirit II - 3-4’

Invincibelle® Wee White™ - 1-2.5’

Invincibelle® Spirit II (Two) in our trial fields

Hydrangea macrophylla – Reblooming Bigleaf Hydrangea - Full sun to partial shade

               Let’s Dance® reblooming series – Reliable, long blooming, rich flower colors.

          Let’s Dance® Big Easy® - 2-3’

          Let’s Dance® Blue Jangles® - 3-4’

Let’s Dance® Diva! - 3-4’

Let’s Dance® Rave™ - 2-3’

Let’s Dance® Rhythmic Blue™ 2-3’

Let's Dance® Big Easy™ Hydrangea

Hydrangea paniculata – Dwarf Panicle Hydrangea - Full Sun

               Bobo® - 2.5-3’

               Little Lime® - 3-5’

               Little Quick Fire® - 3-5’

Bobo® Hydrangea

Hydrangea serrata – Serrated Hydrangea - Full sun to partial shade

             Tuff Stuff™ Series – Selected for hardiness and reliable blooming.

Tiny Tuff Stuff™ - 1.5-2’

Tuff Stuff™ - 2-3’

Tuff Stuff™ Red - 2-3’

Tiny Tuff Stuff™ Hydrangea

Hypericum –St. Johnswart - Full Sun

               Sunny Boulevard® - 2-3’, Tough, drought tolerant and long blooming

Sunny Boulevard® Hypericum

 Itea virginica – Dwarf Sweetspire - Full sun to partial shade

Little Henry® - 2-3’, A dwarf selection with early summer blooms and excellent orange-red fall color.

Little Henry® Itea

Lagerstroemia – Dwarf Crapemyrtle - Full sun

               Infinitini® Series – Dwarf compact shrubs, that flower even if they die back.

Infinitini® Brite Pink – 2-4’

Infinitini® Magenta – 2-4’

Infinitini® Orchid – 2-4’

Infinitini® Watermelon – 2-4’

Infinitini® Magenta

Ligustrum - Privet - Full sun to partial shade

               Golden Ticket® - 4-6’, A non-invasive, non-burning, bright yellow-green foliage.

Loropetalum – Dwarf Chinese Fringe Flower - Full sun to partial shade

Jazz Hands® Series – Selected for healthy growth and attractive flowers and foliage.

Jazz Hands® Bold – 5-6’

Jazz Hands® Dwarf Pink – 1-3’

Jazz Hands® Dwarf White – 1-3’

Jazz Hands® Mini – 1’

Jazz Hands® Variegated – 4-6’

Jazz Hands® Bold and Mini

Physocarpus – Dwarf Ninebark - Full sun

Dwarf selections with colorful foliage and a high level of mildew resistance             

Festivus Gold® - 3-4’

Tiny Wine® - 3-5’

Tiny Wine® Gold – 3-5’   

Potentilla – Bush Cinquefoil - Full sun

Happy Face® Series - Tough, free flowering native shrubs with a range of colors.  

Happy Face® Pink Paradise – 2-3’

          Happy Face® Yellow – 2-3’

HappyFace® White - 2-3’

Happy Face®  Yellow Potentilla

Spiraea - Spirea - Full sun

Double Play® Series – Attractive spring foliage color and superior flowering.

                    Double Play® Artisan® - 2-2.5’

Double Play® Big Bang™ - 2-3’

Double Play® Blue Kazoo® - 2-3’

Double Play® Candy Corn™  - 1.5-2’

Double Play® Gold – 1.5-2’

          Double Play® Painted Lady™ - 2-3’

          Double Play® Pink – 2-2.5’

                    Double Play® Red™ - 2-3’

Double Play® Blue Kazoo® Spiraea

Weigela - Weigela - Full sun

Sonic Bloom® Series – Continuous flowering in a range of flower colors.

Sonic Bloom® Pearl – 4-5’

Sonic Bloom® Pink – 4-5’

Sonic Bloom® Red – 4-5-

Wine Series™ – Early summer flowers and attractive burgundy foliage

Fine Wine® - 2-3’

Spilled Wine® - 2-3’

Wine & Roses® - 4-5’

Sonic Bloom® Red Weigela