June is, traditionally, the month for weddings. It is also the time when old fashioned roses bloom, along with peonies, iris and many other great garden flowers. Is that coincidence? Perhaps.
But maybe the two are linked. Let’s look at some great June flowers you can grow, and how to succeed with them. My mom was an organic gardener who loved her roses.
And although she is no longer with us to deny it, I think she may have cheated when it came to her roses. Back in the '50s and '60s roses were much fussier than they are now. They suffered from all kinds of fungal diseases and were eaten by ferocious Japanese beetles that made mincemeat of leaves and blooms.
I think she used chemicals to kill the beetles and subdue the fungi. Now we no longer have to resort to chemicals to have nice roses. Breeders have worked hard to develop roses that stay healthy and avoid predation from hungry beetles.
The beetles were easy: they bred roses without scent to attract them. I don’t know how they developed roses resistant to diseases, but they have. I never see rose diseases, and I never spray.
My favorite roses are part of the “Knockout” series of roses, though I know others who really like the “Easy Elegance” series. They do not grow blossoms on long stems, but have multiple blossoms per stem. My “Knockouts” start blooming in June, bloom all summer, and up until hard frost – or even later.
Roses love full sun, but will grow in part shade. But the more sun they get, the bett.
