Here's what we learned through trial and error about the variety of roses that do well:
- Morden
- Parkland
- Explorer
- Pavement
- Rugosa
This is the Morden Sunrise rose, a beautiful single blossom that really does look like the rising sun.
We buy our roses in a dormant state (dry root) at our local nursery outlets and garden centres at Canadian Tire and Wal-mart. They come in a waxed container like a milk carton, some are already breaking dormancy by showing small new shoots. We pot them up and get them started in the greenhouse - like you see in the first photo - when the snow is still on the ground outside.
This red-leafed rose (Rosa rubrifolia), is a very hardy (to zone 2) rose with many small pink single blooms. Its prominent feature is not the blossoms as much as the unique colour of the leaves.
It does tend to sprawl, so it helps to prune back the new runaway branches, especially suckers.
This is my favorite rose. It's a yellow rugosa (the only yellow rugosa, as I understand it) with a blossom that forms up very much like a hybrid tea.
The colour is really quite stunning - emerging as deep yellow and fading to a cream as it matures.
As with other rugosas, it is nicely scented as well.
Another lovely rose is this one from the Explorer series, 'J.P. Connell'. There are two photos here of this rose - the first to show the nice rosebud as it first emerges, and then a pair of blossoms that show how it also fades from a deep creamy colour to a pale white.
We're also partial to red roses, and this is a beauty!
It's also from the Explorer series, named after Samuel de Champlain and is a profuse bloomer.
