Question
Pergola and slope behi
I am looking for something to grow up a steep slope behind a new pergola and trellis. Once planted it will be difficult to access. Someone has suggested a rose such as 'Nazomi'. I intend to grow rambling roses, clematis and honeysuckle on the trellis. Have you any suggestions for me please? Jennifer
AnswerYour garden will be beautiful when it is planted and growing. It would be nice if roses would grow up but they have to be made to grow upwards by pegging them, so your best bet would be to plant them so they fill up the space going down the slope. You have a couple of alternatives here. One is planting a couple of ramblers on the top and letting them spill over and the other is what is called landscape and ground cover roses which are the ones you see planted along the highways. Landscape roses are a little taller than the ground cover ones. These roses always have blooms on them and they don't require spraying or pruning. Plus they are usually disease free. The selection is large and you can get any colour you want in them. You would plant them first along the top spaces about 2 feet apart and then plant the next row in the middle of the top two roses making a triangle shape. Then for the following row you start again like the top planting rose bushes in line with the op ones. Finally towards the base you leave enough space for the rose to cover. As most of these roses will grow up about 18 inches to 24 inches and then arch over, two feet would be fine and then you can prune away any canes that go on the cement. Your main concern here should be easy maintenance so because of that you may have to sacrifice perfect looking blooms. These roses just demand water and some fertilizer. The fertilizer can be given standing at the top through the hose nozzle as a liquid. With these sturdy type roses, all you have to do in the fall is take a lawn rake and rake up the fallen leaves. if you feel they need pruning, simple use an electric hedge trimmer in the spring.
Rose nurseries as well as rose breeders, introduce landscape type roses in sets or series. So you have Kordes in Germany with the Vigorosa Series, Harkness in England has the Floorshow Series, Meilland in France with the Meidiland Series and Poulsen in Denmark with many smaller roses. Really all that you are looking for is a smaller shrub rose. One that will stay about 18 inches tall and then look graceful by bending over. The bending over of the canes encourages more laterals to break along the canes and so you get more flowers. I would be careful when you select a red, as this colour can be prone to black spot so get some information on the rose before you buy it. Yellow is also another colour to select carefully.
In regards to Nozomi. This is a perfect rose for a container as it has very tiny dainty pearlized pink flowers, but it only blooms once and the flowers are so small that they do not make a showing in a large area.
A word of advice if I may. Ramblers make a lot of growth with nasty thorns and in time will have to be pruned or cut back to keep under control, so make sure the clematis you select doesn't need to be pruned yearly or you will lose a lot of your life blood. Also if you plant a honeysuckle with a rambler the honeysuckle will win the race because honeysuckles are bullies and make huge root systems. A rambler, such as Gardenia which even has some repeat, will easily cover the back of your trellis. A clematis growing up the post at the base of the entrance by the cement wall would make it easy to look after. You could go wild and plant clematis on all the posts. What I am saying is that planting clematis with rose roots makes an impossible and frustrating job to look after the clematis. Why the rose books always suggest it I will never know.
Good luck with your new garden, it will be a showpiece when you are finished. If you need more information please get in touch. I will be interested in your progress.
Here is my website with information on lots of roses.
http://www.theoldrosarian.com/
