Heirloom Roses

Landscape Vision loves National Garden Clubs. Here's a great tip from them.

I bet you would be hard pressed to find a gardener that hasn't tried growing roses.  Part of the experience of growing modern day roses is dealing with root stocks suckering and crowding out the pricey hybrid tea rose you planted, spraying for black spot, and having to do a lot of maintenance to make them look good.

Well, one of the latest trends in rose growing is to go back to the basics and grow heirloom roses.  Although most rose enthusiasts had heirlooms in the garden, the majority of gardeners didn't.  The Texas Rose Rustlers brought attention to heirlooms.  According to the Texas Rose Rustlers, at the beginning of the 20th century, there were more than 10,000 varieties of these wonderful old roses in commerce.  But times and preferences changed in the 1930's and 1940's, and only about 2, 000 of these beautiful, hardy, and care-free varieties of roses are still known to exist today.  You can imagine then how many were available in the 1980's when this group was formed.

The scarce amount of these "old roses" out there are typically growing in little known cemeteries and along country roads, and still thriving in older neighborhoods and at abandoned home sites.  The fact that they are thriving and growing in these areas is a testimony to their hardiness.

Most heirloom roses are grown on their own roots rather than being grafted on a rootstock like hybrid Tea roses.  Own root roses have many advantages.  First they typically are more winter hardy.  They freeze to the ground and still sprout back in the spring from their own roots.  They also have a longer life span.  The catalog for the company, Heirloom Roses, says that the typical grafted rose has a life span of ten years.  Own root roses can live to 100+.

But don't think that you need to "rustle" rose cuttings from cemeteries or old home to get these roses.  There are many companies out there that specialize in these old roses.  Do an internet search for "heirloom roses" to find some nurseries or go to local botanical gardens and take advantage of their libraries to find sources.  Add an heirloom rose to your garden next year, and enjoy their blooms, fragrance (which most hybrids don't have), and their carefree upkeep.


Excerpted from Horticulture Tips, Salisbury Garden Yearbook, VFGC, Inc.

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