If you are an amateur gardener who is looking for a project to enhance the look of the area that surrounds your home, you should consider rose trees. The colorful blooms that come every year will liven up any landscape! Rose trees, which are at times also called rose standards, are a bit different from your typical rose plant or rose bush. They are actually created by grafting a central cane to rootstock at the bottom, and to a grandiflora or floribunda rose bush at the top. This presents a single, thin cane that protrudes from the ground by about one meter without any leaves.
All the flowers grow, or more aptly, burst, from the top of the cane. Miniature roses, you will note, are fashioned by the same process. But whether a rose tree is regular or miniature sized, it will always look like a floral balloon stretched up to the sky. In order to ensure that the cane that supports the rose crown does not collapse, it is most often necessary to use stakes. This will be even more important for you if you live in an area that is subject to high winds.
You must also be wary of sun burning or scalding on the cane, since it lacks any foliage to protect it from the sun's rays. Care must also be taken to shield rose trees from the temperature extremes of the winter. While regular roses only need a layer of mulch applied around their base, rose trees must be mulched all the way up the cane.
To do this, you can make a sort of rose tree coat out of chicken wire or some other material, and then line it with mulch, or you can simply relocate the tree somewhere were it will be warm enough, like a green house. It can also be rather difficult to keep rose trees healthy and growing optimally. Much care must be exercised in their pruning, you must never prune the central support cane, but only the flowering crown. Whatever rose varietal is grafted to the crown will determine how you prune, so find out which one is on top before you begin. If you do not you can harm the rose by pruning incorrectly, making it susceptible to disease. When you are choosing your rose tree, you will be able to choose from several different varieties.
The most recent arrivals on the market are the double decker trees, so-called because they contain two decks of flowers. You might also like to consider a weeping tree, which may be named for the weeping willow. Weeping rose trees have a profusion of flowers that pour out toward the ground, in a series of beautiful tears. For striking views, you might choose the Roseberry Blanket Weeping Rose Tree, whose fuschia blossoms are sure to catch your eye. In spite of all the extra care that goes into them, rose trees can be a worthwhile pursuit.
The views they offer will grab people's attention and provide you with portraits of beauty. Placed well they can turn any normal garden into a magical place.
Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as fresh cut flowers at http://www.freshcutflowersdelivered.com
