The Answer is Roses!

I have a problem in my garden and I think that roses are the answer.

This may surprise some people who know me and my garden because currently I have only two roses.

One is this white rose, a Flower Carpet® rose that is planted in a bed in the front, but not in any place where it stands out.

In fact, for much of the summer, this white rose is crowded out by Potentilla fruticosa 'McKay's White' next to it and the silvery foliage of Snow-in-Summer, Cerastium tomentosum, growing up and over it and all around it. The rose doesn’t get all that tall, maybe a foot or so. (Hey, I bet that’s why they call it a “carpet” rose!)

My other rose is a passalong rose that’s in the back somewhere. “Nothing to write home about” so far, since I left it in a pot for two years and just planted it out earlier this summer. We’ll check on it later.

The problem that I think I can solve with roses is that the front flower bed with the Potentilla, Snow-in-summer, and some scraggly Geraniums, looks terrible!

And it is right in the front of the house, which faces south and gets sun all day long.

Why do I think the answer to this problem is roses?

Because I helped my neighbor get two roses to put in front of her house last fall and right now, one of them looks like this.
Now, wouldn’t a nice row of those roses, or some that are a little less pink, be better along the front of the house than those ratty Potentilla shrubs?

Why didn’t I think of roses earlier?

There are a lot of good roses available now, like the one my neighbor has, that don’t need regular spraying to stay looking nice. I’m going to do my research this winter and be ready this spring to buy some of those types of roses to plant in front in place of the Potentilla.

Yes, I’m convinced that roses are the answer, and though I’m probably never going to be an all-out rosarian, I’m going to finally embrace roses in my garden… for a happier life, or maybe a better looking flower bed.