A plant guide
Roses
Curated abundance with a touch of whimsy
Roses have a reputation for being demanding, and it was earned by hybrid teas — the long-stemmed florist roses that want spraying and feeding and coddling. These are not those. Drift roses are low, spreading groundcover roses bred for disease resistance, and they bloom from spring to frost while you mostly leave them alone.
Quick tips
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Sun and air
Six hours minimum, and room to their full width so the leaves dry off by mid-morning.
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Water at the base
In the morning, off the foliage. A soaker on a dawn timer is the best thing you can do.
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One-third in February
Cut back by a third and open the middle. That is the whole job.
Sun
Six hours minimum, and more is better. A rose in part shade will live, stretch, bloom half as much, and hold moisture on its leaves long enough to get spots. If you only have one sunny spot, this is what to put in it.
Air
The second thing roses want, and the one nobody mentions. Leaves that dry off quickly in the morning do not get black spot. Give each plant room to its full width — two and a half feet for most of these — and resist planting them shoulder to shoulder for instant effect.
Water
Deep and weekly beats shallow and daily. Water at the base, in the morning, and keep it off the foliage. Drip or a slow hose laid at the crown is ideal. A soaker on a timer, set to run at dawn, is the single best thing you can do for a rose bed.
Feeding
Once in early spring as growth starts, and again in early summer. Stop feeding by about six weeks before your first expected frost so the plant is not pushing tender growth into cold weather.
A rose that is fed too much makes soft, sappy growth that aphids love. Less is genuinely more.
Pruning
In late winter — February here, before the buds break — cut the whole plant back by about a third and take out anything dead, damaged, or crossing through the middle. That is the entire job.
Drift roses do not need the careful bud-eye-and-angle pruning of a hybrid tea. Shears, a third off, open the middle, done.
Where to put them
They are groundcover roses, so use them as groundcover: along the front of a bed, down a slope, spilling over a low wall, either side of steps. Three of one color in a row will always look better than three different ones in a row.
What we have
Rose 'Apricot Drift'
$28
Rosa
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Deep and weekly, at the base
- Size
- 18 in tall × 2.5 ft wide
- Bloom
- Spring to frost
Soft apricot that fades to cream — the most forgiving color of the set in a mixed bed.
Rose 'Coral Drift'
$28
Rosa
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Deep and weekly, at the base
- Size
- 18 in tall × 2.5 ft wide
- Bloom
- Spring to frost
Bright coral-orange that holds its color instead of bleaching out in July.
Rose 'Lemon Drift'
$28
Rosa
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Deep and weekly, at the base
- Size
- 18 in tall × 2 ft wide
- Bloom
- Spring to frost
A true yellow groundcover rose, which is rarer than it sounds.
Rose 'Peach Drift'
$28
Rosa
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Deep and weekly, at the base
- Size
- 18 in tall × 2.5 ft wide
- Bloom
- Spring to frost
Soft peach, very free-flowering, and it looks at home against brick.
Rose 'Pink Drift'
$28
Rosa
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Deep and weekly, at the base
- Size
- 18 in tall × 2.5 ft wide
- Bloom
- Spring to frost
Single flowers with a pale eye — the one that looks most like a wild rose and the bees agree.
Rose 'Popcorn Drift'
$28
Rosa
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Deep and weekly, at the base
- Size
- 18 in tall × 2 ft wide
- Bloom
- Spring to frost
Opens butter yellow and fades to white, so the plant carries both at once.
Rose 'Red Drift'
$28
Rosa
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Deep and weekly, at the base
- Size
- 18 in tall × 2.5 ft wide
- Bloom
- Spring to frost
Small deep red flowers over very low, very wide growth. Good spilling over a wall.
Rose 'White Drift'
$28
Rosa
- Light
- full sun
- Water
- Deep and weekly, at the base
- Size
- 18 in tall × 2 ft wide
- Bloom
- Spring to frost
Clean white double flowers. The one that makes every other color in the bed look better.
A little field guide to easy roses.