Judith’s Corner - January 2002

 A lot of gardening is dumb luck, and I’ve had a lot of that kind of luck with roses. This misled me into thinking that I knew what I was doing. I’m over it. Hybrid teas have humbled me.

 There’s a reason why the tradition of grouping hybrid teas started. I’m not a big fan of huge sweeps of single colors, or textures, in flowers--not in my own yard, anyway. As I’ve put roses in (and until recently, I only knew about hybrid teas), I put them wherever I happened to be standing. This has turned out to be a mistake. Not a fatal mistake, but a mistake.

 To the non-rosarian , “roses” and “hybrid tea” are one and the same. Those are the roses we see in florists shops and gardening centers, so it’s an easy mistake to make. Hybrid teas aren’t a product of Mother Nature--they’re the dreams of men, made real in greenhouses, not unlike orchids. They were developed to produce a specific style of bloom in a specific kind of setting--upright, showy, good for mass display, and cutting. Hybrid teas aim for perfection of form above all other characteristics, and the gorgeous product of the effort is both a blessing and a curse. Beautiful flowers--ugly shrubbery. Lovely blooms--less fragrance. Fabulous flowers--vulnerability to everything. Glorious flowers--high maintenance.

 Hybrid teas are grouped because they require a great deal of attention, and it is nearly impossible to keep them healthy without serious, often chemical, intervention. Hybrid-teas are grouped because you might as well do all that work in one location, sparing the rest of your garden from overspray or infestations. I already have enough roses in my suburban yard to make it difficult to stop the spread of bad bugs, so I have to do prevention all over my yard.

 Now I’m trying to figure out systemic insecticides and the schedule of applications. Why? Because hybrid-teas are bug and disease magnets, and it’s stupid for me to think I can overcome this deficit without some help.

 I do have several different kinds of roses waiting for spring planting--none of them are hybrid-teas, so I can treat them as regular perennials in my yard. I’m learning. Repeat after me: Old garden roses, species roses, David Austins, polyanthas, rugosas . . . (Jan., 02)

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