Standard roses are not an independent garden group, but a garden art technique for effectively demonstrating the beauty of these luxurious flowers. A huge bouquet of roses on the trunk gives the site a unique charm, certainly becoming the center of attention. It is not surprising that today no rose garden is complete without standard roses.
A standard rose is not a bush, but a tree, which should be decorative from all sides and in harmony with the overall design of the garden. The stems bloom a little earlier than spray roses and bloom for a long time and profusely. They are planted both in a single planting and in small groups. They are good in a flowerbed, along with bush roses, along paths, in a mixborder, and against the backdrop of a lawn. If they are planted together with bush roses, then the size of both is taken into account, since, for example, undersized stems can be lost in tall bushes. Shrub and standard roses of the same variety look very elegant on the same flower bed; the combination of standard roses with low bush varieties or other plants makes it possible to form the space of the flower garden very effectively (in 2-3 tiers).
Standard roses are an irreplaceable material for single plantings, and compositions from them can be supplemented with other flowering plants. If a standard rose is planted on a lawn in a single planting, it is good to plant patio roses, miniature or groundcover in its near-stem circle. Weeping standard forms make a special impression - their lashes hang down to the very ground, creating a cascade of blooming roses. They can be grown on special supports.
It is good to place traditional standard roses from hybrid tea roses and floribunda roses near benches, gazebos, paths. Small standard forms of miniature roses are very cute - they can be placed in the foreground of the site. Weeping, cascading stems are effective, for which small-flowered climbing and ground cover roses are used. On a spacious plot, the standard forms of shrub and climbing large-flowered roses look great.
Selection of seedlings
The purchase of seedlings of standard roses should be approached carefully. It is better to buy them in nurseries or specialized stores. When choosing a standard rose, it is important to find out which garden group the variety you like belongs to - further care of the plant depends on it.
An indicator of high-quality planting material is a well-branched crown with healthy lignified shoots at its base and an even stem (part of the trunk from the root collar to the grafting site - the first lower branches of the rose) and without signs of disease.
It is also necessary to find out on which type of rootstock the rose is grafted, tk. as the value of the stock in the standard culture increases. The essential qualities of the rootstock are good fusion with the scion and the subsequent development of varietal shoots. Unsuitable for growing boles rose rubiginoza (R. rubiginosa, R. eglanteria) and rose cinnamon (R. cinnamomea), with moderate growth, densely spiky shoots with loose wood and a large amount of overgrowth.
In Central Russia, a widespread almost everywhere rose canina (R. canina). This stock grows quickly, has good winter hardiness, a powerful branched root system, sufficient resistance to pests and diseases, a smooth and even root collar without thorns, easily lagging bark, is durable and well compatible with most varieties. Among the varieties of the canina rose, more than 20 forms have been identified that are most suitable as a rootstock.
Standard roses are especially sensitive to moisture loss, so they are best purchased in containers with a closed root system. Basic requirements when choosing: the height of the container is at least 25 cm, the plant is easily removed from it, and the earthen lump is penetrated with roots. Dry or waterlogged soil, weeds or moss are signs of poor maintenance.
Landing
When planting, standard roses require more attention than spray roses. The site for them should be located in a sunny place and protected from the winds. The best time to plant is late April - mid-May; but throughout the summer, planting is also possible, because standard roses are sold mainly in containers.
Most grafted roses will withstand a wide variety of soil conditions as they grow on the rootstock. But light clay soils are better suited for their cultivation, which are further improved by the introduction of sand, peat compost and organic fertilizers (with small reserves of compost, it is applied during planting directly into the planting pit). The reaction of the soil should be slightly acidic (pH 5.5–6.5). It is undesirable to plant seedlings in the old place - the soil there is depleted and infected with various pests and pathogens. On such a site, remove 50–70 cm of the old soil layer and fill in a fresh one. If the soil on the site is loose and fertile, then before planting, double digging should be carried out to a depth of 70 cm so that the soil layer becomes breathable. You can grow standard roses in the winter garden or in containers on the street - for the winter they must be brought into the basement with a temperature of 1 ... 3 ° C.
When planting, you need to foresee in which direction you will have to bend the bole when sheltering for the winter. In order not to break the stem during installation, the bend at its base should be on the side opposite to the slope. First, a stake is driven into the hole with a height not less than the trunk of the trunk, then the plant is carefully lowered, trying not to bend the roots, but to place them evenly. The earth around the trunk is pressed, and then trampled down. The stem itself is tied to the stake, otherwise it may break under the weight of the crown or bend so that the development of the shoots will go obliquely, and the crown will acquire an asymmetrical shape.
Seedlings from containers are planted in pits larger than an earthen lump, and must also be tied to stakes. Unlike spray roses, which may have a slight deepening of the root collar, standard roses are planted without deepening. After planting, the standard rose is always watered, even if the soil is wet.
Care
After planting, for the engraftment period, the crown of the trunk must be protected from drying out by covering it with moistened moss or cotton wool and wrapping it on top with paper. Moss (cotton wool) is periodically moistened and removed after 7-10 days; it is better to do this in the evening or cloudy weather.
Standard roses, like bush roses, need to remove wild growth and faded flowers, loosening the soil, watering, feeding, treatments against diseases and pests. In grafted plants, shoots of wild growth often appear below the grafting site and from the roots. It develops very quickly and differs from the cultivated rose in smaller foliage, prickly. If overlooked, wild growth can weaken the plant and even lead it to death.
Pruning
The main purpose of pruning is to form a beautiful round crown. In this case, the spring pruning of the crown is carried out depending on the belonging of the variety to one or another garden group. Do not cut the shoots of hybrid tea roses, floribunda roses and miniature roses too short (as can be done with spray roses) - leave more than 5-6 buds. Strong pruning (when only 2-4 buds are left) promotes the formation of too powerful tall shoots that violate the shape of the crown. In climbing standard roses, the main shoots that have faded last year are cut out, leaving young replacement shoots, while shortening them a little. If there are no replacement shoots or there are few of them, then the faded shoots are not cut out, but the lateral branches are shortened on them. In cascading standard roses (ground cover), the main and side branches are shortened.
Pruning should be done with a sharp pruner 0.5 cm above a well-developed bud. The cut should be straight. Thick shoots are cut with a delimber or file. All sections over 1 cm must be covered with garden varnish.
Shelter for the winter
They begin to shelter standard roses in late October - early November, before the onset of stable cold weather. Pre-cut the crown in accordance with the belonging of the variety to the garden group, however, all unripe shoots are removed completely. In hybrid tea roses and floribunda roses, the shoots can be shortened to a height of 30–40 cm. If the standard rose is cascading, longer shoots are left; in climbing small-flowered roses - all shoots to the full length, slightly shortening them. However, in any case, cut off all the leaves - it is undesirable to leave them, because during the winter they rot and become a source of fungal diseases.
The stem is undermined with a shovel and bent to the ground, spruce branches are placed under the crown of the stem, and another layer of spruce branches on top, securing with film or lutrasil. The root and base of the trunk are covered with dry earth (in some cases, the crown with spruce branches can also be covered with earth). Subsequently, the snow that has fallen completely covers the plants and serves as a warm blanket for them.
The shelter should be completely removed in the spring only after the snow melts and the danger of severe frosts has passed - this usually happens after April 10. But later opening leads to damping off and death of plants.
TOHow to propagate standard roses?
Before a standard rose goes on sale, it is grown for 5-6 years. You can grow it yourself, however, it should be borne in mind that it takes more time to reproduce and grow standard roses compared to bush roses. It will take 3-4 years only to grow a standard stock with a height of 1.5–2.0 m. Therefore, when growing standard roses, much attention is paid to the selection of special vigorous rootstock forms and high agricultural technology.
Strong annual rosehip seedlings are planted in a well-fertilized area. By autumn 2–3, and sometimes only 4 years old, renewal shoots with a height of 1.5–2.0 m with a trunk diameter of more than 1 cm grow. The appearance of such shoots is facilitated by the spring cutting of a part of last year's renewal shoots. Shoots appearing in the 4th year almost do not elongate, branching in the upper part.
On each rosehip bush, one of the tallest and most direct shoots is chosen - the best of all is the one that appears in spring and has time to lignify by autumn. It will become the standard stock - the rest of the shoots are cut out at the very root collar. In autumn, the finished stock can be dug up, dug horizontally and covered with spruce branches for the winter. If the stock stock has been dug up, in the spring it is planted and grafted at the same time as spray roses - from late July to mid-August.
Budding (grafting with an eye) is carried out on the stem in the usual way, stepping back from the top of 40-50 cm. It cannot be carried out too high on annual shoots, because their upper part contains a lot of moisture, and the rootstock does not grow together with the scion. In the T-shaped incision, 2 eyes are inserted from opposite sides at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other. Double grafting contributes to the formation of a more lush crown. Cuttings for grafting are cut from ripe annual shoots of garden roses. Cuttings should not be cut from shoots that have not bloomed, since the buds on them are not sufficiently developed. It is not recommended to inoculate more than 2 eyes - then the 3rd kidney will not develop well. If vaccinated in winter, it is better to carry out budding in the butt. The survival rate of the standard stock is higher than that of the bush stock.
Any variety from any garden group can be grafted onto a rosehip grown for a stem, but roses with a good bush structure look better on stems. You can also graft on one stem two varieties that differ in color. Low stems with a height of 75–100 cm are usually oiled with miniature roses; stems 130–150 cm high - hybrid tea roses and floribunda roses; stems 150-200 cm high - climbing and ground cover roses. For the winter, a freshly grafted bole is bent down, covered with earth and covered with spruce branches. In the spring, the stem is raised, tied to a stake and cut off over the grafted eye. The cut is covered with garden pitch.In mid-May, the eyes, grafted in the previous summer, start to grow. To get a well-branched crown, pinch the tops of the shoots after the 3-4th leaf. During the summer, shoots are constantly pinched, thereby forming a crown, and wild growth is removed. In September, your standard rose is ready.
