Gardening
Gerald Filipski
A Rose by Any Other Name
For me , gardening can be all about fragrance . It is impossible for me to walk by a fragrant flower and not stop to inhale the perfume . Sitting in the garden or on the balcony on a quiet evening is made just that much more special when surrounded by plants that offer up their heady scent . Roses have been grown for centuries for their perfume . Some offer fragrances that are very delicate and almost imperceptible , while others broadcast their fragrance from metres away .
It is relatively easy to add this fragrance to your deck or balcony by growing roses in containers . For me , gardening is becoming more and more about growing things in containers . My gardening space is smaller than it used to be , yet I still want to experience my favourites . I find that containers fill that bill quite nicely .
Some roses , such as the Explorer series , may even overwinter in the container if given special winter protection . Others , such as the hybrid teas and floribundas , may not survive the winter but will offer a great deal of enjoyment for very little investment . Roses really are worth the little extra effort they take in terms of keeping them happy during the growing season and meeting their overwintering needs .
One of the challenges I enjoy when rose gardening is trying to find the least expensive roses that will perform the best . Yes , I am inherently frugal , and finding a bargain is an endless source of entertainment for me . Often , you can find bare root stock hybrid tea roses on sale in the big box stores for $ 7 to $ 10 each . If you wait until mid-June , you can get many of these for fifty to sixty per cent off . Paying $ 3 to $ 5 for a hybrid tea that likely will not survive the winter in a container makes more sense to me than paying $ 30 for a potted rose . The trick when buying bare root roses is to look for ones that show signs of life . Look for the formation of buds or leaves that have already opened . If you don ’ t see any of these , be cautious . I used to recommend looking for green on the stems as a sign of life , but the growers have taken to coating the stems with a green wax .
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