Roses Made Easy
Don't be afraid to grow roses. New varieties are so easy, you can just plant them and enjoy the boost of color they give your garden from late spring through fall.
Rose breeders' suggestions
We asked some of the country's top breeders for three choices specifically for the Midwest. All are shrub or groundcover roses.
Keith Zary, vice president of research at Jackson & Perkins' Somis, California, facility, suggests these three, all hardy to Zone 5 (Zone 4 with winter cover):
-- Snowcone grows in clusters of 50 white blooms (each the size of popped popcorn). The blooms make people wonder if it's really a rose or another type of perennial.
-- Good 'n Plenty, a miniature mounding shrub, grows 2 feet tall and 2 1/2 feet wide. A white center with bright yellow stamens punctuates the raspberry-pink, five-petal blooms.
-- Roseberry Blanket reaches 12 to 18 inches tall but spreads about 30 inches wide, performing well as a groundcover or in containers. Masses of hot-pink blooms cover the plant. The rose is cold-hardy and disease-resistant.
Pictured: Good 'n Plenty
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