Growing roses

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Hot Gardens Newsletter July 2004

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Digging Deep.  A team of British scientists have drilled into the Antarctic ice sheet and gone back in time to 750,000 years ago.  Their goal: to discover what our planet’s weather patterns have been over the eons.  What they have found confirms the beliefs of  both the “Greenhouse-Gases-Are-Making-Our-Planet-Hotter” people and the “It’s-Just-A-Natural-Process” people.  The cycles of ice ages and warmer weather are, in fact, natural.  BUT the greenhouse gases appear to be magnifying the effect which means continued warming, more record temperatures and more desertification of the planet.  

The first is Lantana (Lantana montevidensis) planted at the front of a bed as ground cover.  The gold-blossom lantana is truly an industrial-strength plant which blooms brilliantly for months on end

The other Lantana color varieties--purples, lavenders, yellows, oranges and reds – do not seem to bloom as vigorously nor as dramatically. And vigorous really describes Lantana if it likes where it is planted.  You may have to cut it back drastically once a year in mid-winter.   For an example of a garden which has used only gold Lantana for floral color visit the Private Garden page.

Gold Lantana looks wonderful in front of pink dwarf Nerium oleander.  Like all oleanders this hybrid will withstand tough treatment--utter neglect, smog, dust storms, being run over by trucks – you name it!  The dwarf pink Oleander grows to about three to four feet tall and blooms in a lovely delicate pink.  There are also red and salmon color dwarf varieties but their flowering season is shorter. 

Because Oleander is visually “solid”, we suggest that you plant a group of three, alternating with a group of three rose bushes – either white or yellow.  Rose bushes give an open, airy feeling to a border.  The white blooms provide a soothing visual accent to this bright color border; yellow roses continue the color brilliance.  Roses need a lot of water in summer.

For another taller layer behind the Oleander, either plant the official shrub of Texas, the Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) or Oleanders grown as standards.  Both these plants naturally grow as multi-stem shrubs but can be trained to grow with one stem into a tree-like shape called a “standard”.  The hot pink Crape Myrtle, shown to left, or Oleander standard would probably look best in this combination.

One more addition: yellow sunflowers.  The sunflowers are an excellent color balance for the Lantana -- but at a different height.  We prefer the smaller, multi-stem sunflowers to the gigantic ones.  Wild birds, however, love them both for the seeds. 

And to make it six:  The Mexican Bird of Paradise  (Caesalpinia Pulcherima) is a flowering shrub with an open structure that could be a more drought-tolerant substitute for the roses.

Keep in mind.  All Oleander is poisonous.  Lantana leaves have a mildly kerosene-y scent, but that does not seem to bother the butterflies. The roses, of course, are the exception to low water usage. Crape Myrtles really prefer acidic soil, so be sure to add organic amendments if your install this combination and you will have glorious color all summer long!  

Jarring News.  If you want to add color right now—today—instead of planting a border for next year, consider placing several large colorful pots in your garden.  You can see an excellent example of using large tall pots and brightly colored furniture to add color to a basically green garden on the Private Garden page.  Yes, we know large glazed pots are expensive, but keep in mind they are permanent color and you never have to water, fertilize or trim them!  And you know exactly how large they are going to be this year, next year and forever!

Decoded Plant.  Because its DNA is simple, the Thale cress, or Arabidopsis thaliana was chosen to be the first plant to have its genetic make-up decoded.  It is a small, inconspicuous weed that grows practically everywhere on the planet, except for wet lands.  Scientists are already looking at its genes as a resource to make other plants grow faster and bigger.  

Go to our Newsletter for July 2003  or July 2005