Taking Time To Discuss The Roses

Henry Moore’s Large Totem Head of 1968 can be found nestled comfortably in the Rose Garden among some of the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s most traditional and well-known beauties. If you look closely, the statue is leaning forward – I think to catch a better glimpse of the wonder around it!
Emily Russell, Atlanta Botanical Garden horticulturist, is responsible for the beautiful sights and delicious smells that emanate for much of the year from this oasis along with her partner in crime, Emily Ann Bielawski. Russell graduated from the University of Michigan with degrees in Environmental Studies, Anthropology and French, and has been working at the Atlanta Botanical Garden for three and a half years. Read on to hear what Emily has to say about the variety of flora one can find in the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Rose Garden...

It’s been a beautiful spring for roses: long and cool with lots of rain. Now summer is suddenly here, and it’s HOT. It happened so fast! Where did 78 degrees go? I grew up in Michigan, and I firmly believe that it should not reach 90 degrees in the month of June (May is out of the question). After four and a half years in Atlanta, I’m still adapting. The roses are feeling the heat too. The glorious spring show is over and we’re settling in for a long, hot, southern summer. Lucky for the roses at ABG, they’ve been carefully selected to thrive in this crazy climate. Since our rose garden is maintained organically, we choose roses that perform well here without toxic sprays and synthetic fertilizers. I think Henry Moore would like that: organic forms, organic garden!

Speaking of organic forms, it’s surprising to find out that Moore’s original inspiration for this sculpture was a boat, and then he named it Large Totem Head. I, along with some other horticulturists, think it looks like a giant seedpod of some unknown plant. Cathleen sees a walnut. Other people may see it as a fertility symbol blessing all the weddings held out in the rose garden. It looks reproductive in some sense….. perfect for a sensual, beautiful, blooming rose garden!
This lovely picture is from the time in early May when the roses can do no wrong. They are so fresh and beautiful with clean new foliage, blooming their hearts out with no prompting from the gardener. Then, usually right about now at the beginning of June, they start getting hot and tired. They want deadheading, fertilizing, and watering, and blackspot rears its ugly head. I can’t blame them; the heat makes me whiny too. 'Blush Noisette' (Noisette, before 1817)

But I really love roses. And I love our roses at ABG in particular, with all their diversity of color, form, and fragrance. We have over 100 different cultivars of roses, in 25 different classes. Our rose collection emphasizes Old Garden Roses: all classes that existed before the introduction of the first hybrid tea. The world of Old Garden Roses has so much more diversity than the standard florist roses that have lost their fragrance after years of hybridizing. If you’ve never smelled a Damask rose in bloom, you’ll have to come to ABG next spring and smell ‘Kazanlik.’ Damasks are the roses that have been used to make perfumes for hundreds of years. ‘Kazanlik’ is not a repeat bloomer, so he only blooms for a few weeks in April-May, but it’s worth the wait!

'Penelope’ (Hybrid Musk, 1924) at right, with the base of the sculpture at the top of the photo.

Another class of roses that I love is the Hybrid Musk. They are planted around the Henry Moore sculpture in the Rose Garden. ‘Penelope’ is one of my favorite Hybrid Musks. She has great dark green, glossy foliage and keeps flushing out flowers all summer long. At 97 degrees in August, ‘Penelope’ just smiles. Tea roses are another class that is amazing in Georgia. They aren’t hardy enough for northern gardeners, but they love to bloom all summer in heat and humidity, and they have a classic “tea” scent that is uniquely soft and delightful.
In an organic rose garden, summertime = alfalfa tea time. This is the liquid fertilizer we make by steeping alfalfa and water for a few days then adding fish emulsion. It doesn’t smell as delicious as a tea rose, but it keeps the roses happy. While the roses are drinking their alfalfa tea, the companion plants are also kicking it up a notch. That’s another thing I love about our rose garden: it’s beautiful year-round with bulbs, groundcovers, grasses, perennials, and clematis all mixed in with the roses. It makes for some stunning combinations.

'Rosette Delizy' (Tea, 1922)

Right now, we have coneflowers, Shasta daisies, gladiolus, and drumstick alliums just hitting their stride. We’re planting some ‘Cherry Chief’ salvias and coleus at the base of the sculpture next week. And today, the temperatures have cooled off again, ahh – sighs of relief. It’s just gorgeous out there! Come see us!

Guy Savoy® (Shrub, 2002) with Nasella tenuissima

Gladiolus tubergenii ‘Charm’

Allium sphaerocephalon

P.S. If this blog post has inspired you to love organic and heirloom roses as much as we do, check out the Rose Community Public Gardens Project. It’s a way to contribute to the Atlanta Botanical Garden rose garden through small nurseries that are preserving rare and historic roses. Click here for more information!