Rose is the undisputed favorite, the queen of flowers. How often we crave to have it in our garden, but we are stopped by doubts: can we cope with caring for and taking care of it. Indeed, as a true queen, a rose requires a worthy retinue and perfect care. When you open any specialized book on roses, an avalanche of information falls on you from its pages, according to which we should give our roses maximum care and attention, and only then they will answer us with grateful flowering. However, today there are many varieties of roses that do not require such close attention, decorative and stable in the conditions of central Russia and the Moscow region.
Ground cover roses of German selection from the nurseries W. Kordes Sohne, Rosen Tantau and the Danish firm Poulsen have proven themselves perfectly. Initially, ground cover roses were created for landscaping cities and parks, but in recent years these roses are increasingly used in private gardens. This is due to the following factors. Firstly, the roses of this group have good winter hardiness: a light shelter is enough for them, and some varieties can also winter under snow. Secondly, in recent years, new varieties have appeared, characterized by long flowering, up to frost. Thirdly, the difference in the existing forms of ground cover roses provides ample opportunities for their use in garden design. Roses of this group are distinguished not only by decorativeness of flowers and fruits, but also by a beautiful habit of branched bushes, the width of which often significantly exceeds the height. Many varieties form dense carpets of glossy foliage covered with numerous flowers.
Conventionally, the group of ground cover roses can be divided into 5 subgroups, characterized by different types of shoot growth and bush height:
1. Low bushes with creeping shoots ('Snow Carpet', 'Knips');
2. Upright, wide bushes ('Fru Dagmar Hastrup', 'Schneezwerg');
3. Low, wide, highly branching plants ('Snow Balate', 'Mainaufea');
4. Roses with arched flowing shoots ('Mozart', 'Bingo Meidiland');
5. Bushes with long creeping shoots ('Max Graf', 'Heidekenigen').
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| Snow Carpet | Knips |
However, this division is very arbitrary and often in the catalogs of various companies you can find roses belonging to different subgroups. So for example a rose 'Bonika 82' belong to both ground cover, and mini-scrubs, and to the Floribunda class; a 'Sommerwind' - include groundcover and Floribunda roses.
Ground cover roses can be classified as universal and low-maintenance roses, suitable for growing in rose gardens, in mixborders and even for container planting.
However, you should be careful about the preparation of the landing site. Weed roots should be carefully removed from the soil (preliminary soil treatment with "Roundup" is possible), since numerous branched shoots will not suppress weeds, but will significantly complicate weeding. After planting, it is advisable to mulch the ground under ground cover roses. As a mulching material, you can use black non-woven material, tree bark, dried cut grass, rotted peat or compost.
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| Schneezwerg | Fru Dagmar Hastrup |
Cost-effective and annual pruning of roses. It is carried out according to the following scheme. After planting, the ends of the shoots should be trimmed in the first year to stimulate growth and branching. Further, annually in the spring, sanitary pruning is carried out, in which frozen, broken and weak shoots are removed, while ground cover roses do not need regular pruning. Every 5-6 years for rejuvenation, the bushes are cut short.
Ground cover roses bloom very profusely. Non-double varieties look great 'Mozart' ('Mozart') - with pink flowers and a white eye, 'Sweet Hayes' ('Sweet Haze') with delicate white-pink flowers, white-flowered variety 'Diamond' ('Diamant') or red 'Royal Bassino' ('Royal Bassino') are decorated with bright large yellow stamens.
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| Mozart | Sweet Hayes |
These roses vary widely in flower size, from small (about 3 cm in diameter) like 'Knips'('Knirps'), to large enough (8-10 cm), like 'Suprim Cover'('Supreme Cover')... They can be thick double, like 'Le Quatre Seasons'('Les Quatre Saisons') and semi-double with corrugated petals, like 'Sommerwind'.
In natural-style gardens (and not only in them), creeping varieties are good. rose wrinkled - old 'Fru Dagmar Hastrup' ('Fru Dagmar Hastrup'), 'Schneezwerg' ('Shneezwerg') and new 'White Pavement' ('White Pavement'), 'Polar Ice' ('Polar Ice') - white, 'Dwarf Pavement' ('Dwarf Pavement'),'Foxy Pavement'('Foxi Pavement') - pink.
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| Scarlet Meyandecor | Diamond |
Abundant flowering trees are adorable if ground cover roses are grafted onto a stem. Varieties with long, whip-like shoots are especially expressive, for example, 'Scarlet Meyandecor'('Scarlet Meilandecor') on a high (1.2-1.5 m) trunk, forming weeping trees.
Each gardener will be able to choose a variety of ground cover roses according to his taste.
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| Foxy pavement | Suprim Cover |
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| Le Quatre Seasons | White Pavement |
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| Polar Ice | Dwarf Pavement |
