I’m going to tell you a secret. A secret about growing good roses. It won’t help me now, but it may help you. You see, after years of following the wisdom from books about roses and from magazine articles about roses and from consulting rosarians about roses and still not getting the quality of bloom and plant that I desired, I finally discovered a simple and effective way to grow better roses by touring the gardens of those who grow great roses for the garden and for show. What is that secret? The secret is shade and shelter.

Remember all the advice that says you need lots of sunlight to grow roses. Well, that is correct to a degree. However, afternoon and late evening sun seems to burn leaves and petals and produce plants that need more water and nutrients to grow. Virtually every great exhibitor whose rose garden I have visited has mid to late afternoon shade. That one growing factor alone seems to lengthen stems, darken and enlarge leaves, and enhance bloom size and color in miniatures and big roses. What a difference that afternoon shade makes.

Those of you in Nashville, I’m sure, are familiar with Jimmy Moser’s prize-winning roses. His yard on the outskirts of Memphis has wonderfully large trees that shade almost his entire yard from the detrimental effects of the sun in late afternoon while bathing the yard with enough sun in the morning and early afternoon to help the plants. The same is true with Larry Meyer’s yard in St. Louis. Larry’s best plants seem to come from his beds next to a large stand of trees that shade his potted roses and those in his lower beds. Don and Paula Ballin’s yard in Chicago was virtually a shade garden, yet it produced scores of winners locally and nationally.

Also, do you remember the advice that you need to grow roses where there is good air circulation? Well, having good air circulation is wonderful advice taken in moderation. However, the shelter provided from wind by trees and adjoining houses protects the plants and the blooms from damaging winds. Foliage is not torn, blooms don’t dry out, stems don’t get blown into each other, basals don’t get blown down. Both Jimmy Moser’s and Larry Meyer’s yards are protected by being in a slight valley from the surrounding landscape. The neighboring houses and trees protect their roses from wind. What a difference that protection makes.

Perhaps I’m just jealous. After all, I live on top of a hill just about a mile from the Oklahoma and Kansas border with Missouri. I have no trees or other structures to protect my plants from the wind or sun. In the summer the 90 to 100-degree days fry my blooms and foliage; the plants just sit and do not want to grow. When the spring and fall rains come, my plants are blown around like rag dolls hanging from a car antennae. My foliage is tattered. Substance is gone form the blooms. My basals have to be staked, or they are lost. Yes, Doris and I have been able to have some success on the local, district and national level, but it seems we have to work ourselves to death to do it with our hilltop garden. I remember trying to cut roses for the Louisville National in the fall of 1993. Each time I cut a stem, holding the bloom with one hand while I cut with the other, the entire stem was horizontal immediately after I made the cut. The wind really does come rolling off the plains of Oklahoma and onto my hilltop

So what are we planning since we don’t really want to move yet? We are investigating ways to shade and protect our plants, perhaps as some Texas growers do in the summer with structures over the rose beds with the ability to put up and take down shade cloth as needed. Any other suggestions would be considered. My dream is to find a tree whose roots would not compete with our roses and that would grow 10-20 feet a year to plant around our beds. Yes, I know it’s a dream, but don’t wake me yet.

In the future we will look for a home for our roses and for us that will protect our beds from the wind and give us late afternoon shade. Jimmy, is your house for sale?