Whether you worried your thumb’s not quite as green as it could be or you’re just tired of dedicating endless hours to fussy, demanding rose cultivars, planting carefree roses is a simple way to enjoy the beauty of this flower without all the headaches.
Carefree roses offer low maintenance benefits like disease- and pest-resistance, continuous blooms without dead-heading, and tolerance of shade and cold winters. If you’re looking for some carefree varieties, here are some good selections to start with.
Shrub roses
Also known as landscaping roses, these roses were breed for parks and other public spaces where groundskeepers don’t have time to lavish attention on any one individual plant.
One of the best in this category is the Carefree WonderTM. This hardy, disease-resistant cultivar grows as a three-foot rounded shrub and produces dark pink double blooms all through the summer. It’s also tolerant of cool weather and will grow as far north as USDA zone 4.
Carefree DelightTM is another shrub rose worth looking into. It puts out cotton candy pink flowers with white centers that are attractive even if not particularly fragrant. The downside of this rose is that it tends have a rather straggly appearance when planted alone, but it looks great in mass plantings and or grown as a hedge.
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The Carefree SunshineTM Rose produces clusters of deep golden yellow buds which open into single, 3-4″ lemon-yellow blossoms. This vigorous, upright growing shrub blooms abundantly from June until October. It also exhibits disease resistant foliage. This rose has its own root. |
The Carefree WonderTM displays free flowering roses that have double flowers of radiant hot pink with a creamy pink reverse, creating an extremely attractive show.The Carefree Wonder has bright green disease resistant foliage. It is suitable for hedges and mass plantings. 1991 AARS Winner. |
Roses under the trade name Flower Carpet are another good choice for carefree roses. These come in a variety of common colors, but most are only slightly fragrant.
Floribunda roses
Dedicated rose gardeners know floribunda varieties are some of the most trouble-free available. Not all are low maintenance, but most are still more disease resistant and hardier than the average hybrid tea. Among the most popular carefree floribundas is the Iceberg. As the name implies, the blooms are white or off white and the cultivar is tolerant of shade and chilly winters, although it does require frost protection. Pronounced fragrance is another nice feature of this rose.
Two other cultivars known for their hardiness are the Livin’ Easy and Easy Going Floribunda Roses. The vigorous Livin’ Easy produces apricot orange and gold blooms with a strong fruity fragrance. Easy Going is a sport of Livin’ Easy with all the same characteristics, but lighter peachy yellow flowers. Both bloom in flushes throughout the growing season.
While these two categories offer the best selection of carefree roses, they’re by no means the only ones. You’ll also find easy care roses among the Old Garden roses, particularly the China roses, and even Hybrid Tea roses. Ultimately it comes down to identifying which qualities you want most in your roses a variety that can meet your needs.
