No garden is complete without a rose bush or two. Every flower grower dreams of the beautiful floral scent and all of the gorgeous varieties and colours possible for their gardens. However, sourcing the dreamy varieties for cut flowers can be extremely challenging, and then your Pinterest dream dies.
When I was a little girl, some of my favourite flowers in our garden were the pink and yellow roses. I looked forward to their beautiful blooms and intoxicating scent every summer. When I grew up and wanted my own garden, my Dad cautioned me against growing roses, saying they’re too finicky, they get overgrown, and you can’t grow much more than the two varieties we had in our yard.
Dad was right for many years, but I still longed for roses.
Unfortunately, if you live in Zone 3 in Canada, there haven’t really been many options for roses over the years. Sure, there are the Morden varieties, but they can be tricky to get ahold of, especially if you don’t have a locally owned garden centre near you. And nothing is more frustrating than researching and finding out about a variety that you love and would work in this harsh climate, only to not be able to find a place to actually purchase it!
Thankfully, this problem is now solved — Heirloom Roses is shipping to Canada!
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Hardy, Beautiful, and Hard-to-find Roses
If you’ve never heard of Heirloom Roses before, they are one of the best sources of roses I’ve ever seen. While people who live in warmer climates will have more options (I wish we could grow those Dave Austin tea roses, but my wallet is thankful we can’t!), I was very impressed with how many choices we do have in Zone 3.
One of the features I appreciate most about the Heirloom Roses website is that you can filter for zone, colour, and type, making the rose of your dreams easy to find.
Heirloom Roses was kind enough to send me two varieties of roses: Henry Kelsey and Therese Bugnet.
The plants arrived in perfect condition and, most importantly, had good root balls. If you’re buying a rose, or any plant, from a big box store or even some of the garden centres, you have to be wary of plants that are root bound (which means that the roots are wrapping around themselves and there’s too many for the pot). Root-bound plants usually die after a year or two, so getting a quality plant like the ones from Heirloom Roses gives you the best chance of your plant leading a long and happy life.
Once I got my plants, I followed the instructions, and my roses now have a new home by our deck. They did very well all summer and even held up to the scrutiny of the chickens! I’ll make sure to update the post with my own photos once they bloom this summer! Until then, the photos throughout this post are courtesy of Heirloom Roses.
Ready to get your own root roses? Check out the Heirloom Roses collection at www.heirloomroses.com and start shopping today! Use the code ROOTS20 to get 20% off your purchase in both Canada and the U.S.!
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want TO GROW YOUR OWN BEAUTIFUL CUT FLOWER GARDEN WITHOUT THE HASSLE?
I’ve taken all the guesswork out of creating a cut flower garden with my e-book, Cut Flowers Made Simple. It’s the perfect way for beginner and intermediate gardeners to start their own cut flower garden with or without seed starting.
Finally, you can create a stunning cut flower garden with everything you need to make beautiful bouquets all summer long.
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