Coming up roses at Niagara Parks Botonical Gardens

If you like roses, a collection such as the one at Niagara Parks, provides one stop shopping.

On a day when it's hotter than a vat of grease at a donut shop, it is still possible to see roses as fresh and dewy faced as a debutante. 'Chicago Peace' a hybrid tea rose is just that beguiling at the rose garden at the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens in Niagara Falls, Ontario. There are 2,656 roses there, and they better look good or they will have Liz Klose to contend with. She is the Superintendent at the famous Niagara Parks School of Horticulture, and she runs a tight ship. On this wilting kind of day she has been at the rose garden since dawn, edging, weeding, primping the roses with the help of students, so they shine for visitors. As organized as a field marshal she uses words like "blitz" and "sweep" when she talks about taking care of the roses. Picture "Operation Desert Rose" and get a glimpse into the maneuvers of Liz Klose.

When I ask her how they deal with the spent flowers on the roses, she tells me about the deadhead blitz. "A crew sweeps through the garden and removes the flowers when they are about 80 to 90 per cent spent," says Liz. And they must do it just so, as she shows me. "They cup one hand underneath the flower, and the other hand cuts lower down the stem at the first true pair of outward facing leaves."

It's ingenious really. The hand cupping the flower catches all the old petals before they fall to the ground, and this is a good practice to keep the rose bed clean and disease free. The other hand with the sharp pruners is at a safe distance, so that no mishaps requiring reattachment of fingers might occur.

If you like roses, a collection such as the one at Niagara Parks, provides one stop shopping. "What we are trying to do is grow roses that appeal to home gardeners, and also maintain historical collections," says Liz. It is an ideal place to walk through with a camera and a notebook and make note of the roses you can't live without. Though all the roses are labeled I noticed how helpful the gardeners were, when visitors asked about taking care of roses.

"I recommend one inch of watering a week for roses, and a bit more if it has been extremely hot and dry. For the home gardener, water at the soil level only if you can," says Liz, explaining that keeping the water off the leaves helps lessen the chance of fungus diseases. Fertilizing she says, should be tailored to the garden and the soil type. "Get a soil test done, it will help determine how you should fertilize."

Roses are heavy feeders, and sulk if they have competition from grass, weeds and tree roots. At Niagara Parks, the beds are pristine and the roses glow with such meticulous care. Liz pointed me in the direction of a luscious climbing rose called 'Lawinia', it scampered up a trellis, and was heavy with sweet, pink flowers. There are few things more inspiring then a well pruned and well grown climbing rose, and there are so many to choose from.

It is easy to get overwhelmed by roses and their legendary demands, but first timers need only to find the Explorer and Parkland types of roses to be satisfied and smitten. These two series were bred in Canada to withstand temperatures as low as -40C. There is an excellent description of these fine roses on the Canadian Rose Society web page at www.canadianrosesociety.org

"I really just want to encourage people to grow roses, to take the fear out of it," says Liz. And she is doing that through her work at Niagara Parks, and in her new book Roses for Ontario co-authored with Laura Peters, and published by Lone Pine www.lonepinepublishing.com

Though it was written for one province, it covers roses from Zones 3-9, so it has valuable information for rose lovers across Canada. I learned for instance, not to plant roses near spruce, ash, poplar and elm, because of their wide spreading root systems, and that my favorite Jens Munk roses don't just have thorns, they have hooked barbs that peel you skin away if you prune without taking precautions!

"The book really works for the home gardener and the horticulturist because of the way it is organized. But it is really just a glimpse of the roses you can grow," says Liz wistfully.

I'm sure Liz looks with envy at the new roses registered just in the last two years with the American Rose Society. After all who wouldn't want to add the new roses 'Charles Darwin', 'Dusty Springfield' and 'Hot Poppy' to their gardens?