Selecting Best Varieties, Expanding to Backyard?

We’re still getting some wet snow and flurries, but I see in the forecast that there are some sunny days ahead. The thermometer will drop to -9 Celsius tonight, but after even lower temperatures during the last week of February, they say that it will warm up in March.

My friend in British Columbia is already pruning his roses and enjoying the crocuses that have sprung out of the comparatively warm ground. Here in Ontario, spring comes much later, but we’re used to it.

I’ve been doing a lot more research and some creative thinking. While my basement rec room was perfect for growing carnations, I’m worried that it won’t be big enough for roses.

I have practically nil experience growing flowers in soil, but a fellow grower is trying to talk me into converting my bare back yard into a rose garden this spring.

At 35’ x 30’ the yard is 1050 square feet, which is about four times the size of my basement. I would still have the hydroponic setup in the rec room, but this would increase my yield substantially and provide me with much needed experience growing roses in soil.

I could plant the same varieties indoors and out and see which ones thrive in either environment. Or I could diversify the varieties that I plant, thus increasing my attractiveness to potential buyers.

I’ve been poring through nursery catalogues and books, trying to pinpoint the varieties of roses that I would be interested in growing. I decided to grow only Hybrid Tea Roses, since they are the aristocrats of the rose world and come closest to what I imagine a rose should look like.

Hybrid Tea Roses have been around since 1867—they are the result of crossing the delicate Tea Rose with a variety known as Hybrid Perpetual. Contrary to rumors, some of the Hybrid Teas have retained their fragrance, even though they have been bred and cross-bred for so long.

At first I was attracted to a bi-color rose called Piccadilly. The vivid reds and yellows of this classic shaped rose give it a very classy appearance. It grows vigorously, but only reaches two and a half feet when fully grown, which would be ideal for my grow space.

However, its disease resistance has decreased in recent years, so now it’s prone to pathogens. Regardless of its beauty, I decided to pass on this variety.

Then I came upon a hybrid called Fragrant Cloud. It was introduced in 1964, so the commercial patent on it had definitely run out. However, I’ve since found out that it’s brilliant red color does fade with age and it’s also prone to Black Spot and Mildew. This headache I can do without.

My first real choice is called Alec’s Red. It’s a multiple award winner that grows to about three feet tall at maturity and is widely available. It is a good choice for exhibitions and cut flowers and its fragrance is rich and sweet.

It is also a classic shaped rose and its crimson petals hold their color well. The clincher? It is disease resistant, which is a blessing for a first time grower. Even though I plan to use Barricade liberally, in order to increase the ability of my flowers to ward off pathogens and pests, it is still comforting to know that the rose has built in resistance, as well.

If I do decide to plant outdoors, I’ll probably choose a magnificent pink rose called Admiral Rodney. It grows quite tall (over 3.5 feet) and its blooms are exceptionally large and well shaped. Ideal for cut flowers or exhibitions.

One of the wonderful things about roses that if they are well tended, they’ll continue to produce blooms for many years to come. So it would save me the hassle of starting a new batch of flowers every four months in my grow room.

The other variety that I decided to grow in my basement is Julia’s Rose, named after a famous flower arranger. It is somewhere between pale yellow and ivory in color and only grows to the height of two and a half feet. It has average disease resistance, but it is specifically recommended for growing indoors.

An added bonus—Julia’s Rose is well known for its long, straight stems. Perfect for the purpose I had in mind. It only needs light pruning.

If you’re growing outdoors, pruning is usually done before the spring growth begins, while the plant is still dormant. You can either prune lightly, moderately, or heavyly. Heavy pruning means you only leave the wooden stems and cut them about five inches off the ground.

In moderate pruning the major stems are cut back to about half their length, while light pruning involves cutting the stems to about two thirds their length. All roses will benefit from pruning, since the new shoots will be young and vigorous and bud formation will be enhanced.

For long stemmed roses, the grower needs to pinch the side buds in a process known as disbudding, which allows for the major bud at the tip of the stem to grow large and striking.

To prolong the flowering season, roses should be deadheaded—that is the faded blooms should be cut before they produce rose hips and seeds. Each bush will have blooms that are not suitable for long-stemmed cut flowers.

The process of deadheading the unsuitable blooms allows for more nourishment to go to the long stemmed, usable ones. The energy that normally would go into seed production is diverted back to help the selected blooms to grow large and fragrant.

Another way to make sure that as many long stemmed flowers as possible are produced by each rose bush is to treat them with Advanced Nutrients Very High Output (VHO), which has been tested and proven to help elongate the stems of the selected blooms.

Additionally, during the flowering stage, Carbo Load Liquid can be added to provide the roses with much needed sugars that they burn up to make their exquisite flowers. For extra fragrance, I plan to add Sweet Leaf, that contains highly sweet berry sugars and molasses, that help to enhance the fragrance of flowers.

I still have to figure out that exact combination of Micro, Grow, and Bloom in order to make sure that my roses won’t get too much Nitrogen. This would cause vigorous vegetative growth at the expense of flower production.

By cutting back on the amount of Micro (5-0-1) I use, I’ll be able to adjust the NPK of my nutrient mix to best suit my roses. That is what’s so great about this Advanced Nutrient 3-part—it is very flexible and you can use it in any combination you want. Or, as I've mentioned previously, I could use another Advanced Nutrients product with micronutrients in it (such as Sensi Cal Grow) to compensate for the reduction in Micro.

I can't eliminate Micro entirely, since it is absolutely essential. The micronutrients that it contains in trace amounts help to prevent deficiencies that can hurt your rose plants. The signs of Magnesium deficiency, for instance, are the yellowing of leaves at the centre, eventually causing these leaves to fall.

Iron shortage in your nutrient solution results in large yellow areas on your leaves, while Manganese deficiency shows up as yellow bands on your leaves. So applying only Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium (NPK) by themselves could still result in damage to your rose bushes, unless you make sure that the micronutrients in Micro are included in the diet of your roses.