KAREN WIGHT -- No place like home

Roses fall into a special category of garden delights.

True, they require some maintenance, but this terrestrial investment

lives for decades, produces great beauty and fragrance for your home most

of the year and comes in an overwhelming number of varieties and colors.

Now that the last of the Christmas blooms have faded, January is the time

to give your roses full attention. An annual pruning is necessary to give

your roses the opportunity for new growth to occur.

Most blooms on a rose bush come from the new growth generated by a winter

make-over, so it is important to trim out the dead, unproductive wood.

Cut out branches that cross through the middle of the bush, decreasing

air circulation. And eliminate branches that make the bush appear

lopsided.

Since we enjoy a relatively temperate climate, hybrid tea roses in our

area don’t need severe pruning. Removing one third of the previous

season’s growth is sufficient to keep your rose bush happily producing

until next year.

Try not to cut into the main canes. These are the prime source of energy

and a drastic pruning can weaken the plant. The ideal result is a

‘v’-shaped bush with an open center.

Shrub roses, floribundas, such as icebergs, need less maintenance. This

type of rose produces more canes than a tea rose. Part of the charm of

floribundas is the foliage and size of the spread. Prune these plants

only by a quarter, and most of that should come from unproductive wood

and branches that cross through the center of the bush. If you are

growing these plants as a hedge, be sure you trim them uniformly.

Climbing roses are easier still. They should be left alone for the first

two to three years after planting, pruning out dead wood only. After they

are well established, prune out unproductive growth, vertical canes that

are unruly and lateral canes that are flimsy and an eyesore.

Climbing roses produce flowers on lateral branches, so be sure to provide

enough support for the weight of the branch when it is heavy with blooms.

Sometimes a rose bush will develop suckers. These renegade branches

usually come from below the bud union or sprout up in the ground near the

bush. They grow rapidly and usually have a different leaf structure. They

will not produce flowers but they will drain energy from your plant. Take

these out so your rose can concentrate on what it does best: produce

beautiful, fragrant flowers.

As new growth appears in February, give your roses their first

fertilizing of the year. Roses love to be fed after a bloom cycle and

this will ensure another crop in about six weeks. When your rose starts

to bloom and you want to enjoy them indoors, cut enough of the stem to

reach a set of five leaflets. This will stimulate the plants to produce

another bud and keep the growth process cycling.

The quantity, class and varieties of roses that have become available in

the past few years makes choosing a rose a complicated process.

There are the hybrid tea roses that most of us think of as the

traditional rose bush. This is the most popular class of rose and has an

all-star lineup of choices, such as Peace, Double Delight, and Tropicana.

Floribundas are shrublike hedge roses that produce multiple cluster-like

flowers. A single flowering stem of a floribunda rose makes an instant

bouquet. The plants are vigorous and are an excellent source of color in

a garden. Roses in this class include Iceberg, Simplicity and French

Lace.

Grandiflora roses are similar to hybrid teas, but reach eight to 10 feet

in height. These are the giants of the rose world and include varieties

such as Queen Elizabeth, Love and White Lightenin’.

Old-fashioned roses have bloodlines that date back hundreds of years.

They have a special charm about them, as if they know they have stood the

test of time and survived with all of their glory intact.

We hear about these roses in literature, see them on ancient pottery and

have sayings like “never the rose without the thorn,” which are

testaments to their well-deserved adoration and longevity.

With names such as Damask Rose, La Reine Victoria and Baronne Prevost, it

is hard to diminish the importance of their ancestry.

Nobility and peasantry have enjoyed the rose’s beauty, fragrance and

tenacity for hundreds of years. And even though “a rose by any other name

would smell as sweet,” why tamper with perfection?

* KAREN WIGHT is a Newport Beach resident. Her column runs Saturdays.