So many great roses for the landscape! I think there’s a rose in this list for everyone, whether you search for antique roses, fragrant ones, low-maintenance shrubs, miniatures or climbers! The Canadian roses are winter hardy to 8500′ making them the perfect choice for our high elevation customers. There are also quite a few that will thrive for the gardeners in the warmer, longer season region of the Lower Arkansas Valley.
Rosa foetida bicolor ‘Austrian Copper’ HEIRLOOM ROSE: This historic, fragrant rose, grown since the 1200’s, is one of our most requested roses. The copper red flowers have a yellow reverse (hence the bicolor in the name.) It will sucker and produce a hedge, 5′ tall x 5′ wide. It can also be used as a climber, by allowing the canes to grow to 8′ tall or more. Blooms in late May or early June. Loves heat and can withstand drought. On the downside, it only blooms once a year, and does have some issues with blackspot if you use overhead irrigation. Zone 3.
Rosa Easy Elegance ‘Coral Cove’: Ever-blooming and highly disease resistant, this rose is the perfect landscape rose. Double blooms of dark pink change to orange and finally to bright yellow at the center. 2′ x 2′. I need this one for myself. Zone 5.
Rosa glauca REDLEAF ROSE: The coppery-mauve foliage and purple-red stems of this species set off the single pink flowers. The dark red hips provide fall interest. It forms a tall, almost thornless shrub. 6 x 5 ft. Zone 3.
Rosa ‘Harison’s Yellow’: Is an heirloom rose that has been grown in Colorado since the gold rush in the 1800’s. Fragrant, and once blooming, it will grow into a large shrub. Survives neglect and drought at abandoned homesteads. Zone 3.
Harison’s Yellow Rose blooming at Perennial Favorites in June.
Rosa ‘Hope for Humanity’ (Canadian Parkland series, 1996) Named in honor of the Canadian Red Cross, this rose is covered with larges clusters of deep wine red buds with high centers that resemble small hybrid tea blooms. Blooms from June until frost. 4′ tall. Zone 3.
Rosa ‘John Cabot’ (Svejda, Ottawa, 1978)–Double rose-pink blooms; climber; super hardy Canadian rose. Canes can reach 8′ in length. Slight fragrance. Zone 3.
Rosa ‘Morden Sunrise’ A yellow-apricot colored Canadian rose with sweet, light fragrance! This one blooms all summer, too. One of my favorites. 3′ tall. Zone 4.
Rosa ‘Therese Bugnet’: The flower buds are red, and change to deep rose-pink when fully open. The blooms are double, with a good rich fragrance, some repeat-flowering and an excellent crop of bright red hips. Extremely hardy and totally disease resistant. If fragrance in a rose matters to you, grow this one! 4′ x 4′ Zone 3.
Rosa woodsii WILD ROSE This rose is native to most of the counties along the Front Range and west into the Colorado mountain. It blooms in June, with single pink flowers. The flowers are followed by attractive red hips that can be made into tea or jelly. This rose is surprisingly drought tolerant, although the less water it gets, the shorter it grows. Survived in the wild near us during the extreme droughts of the last decade. Zone 3.
