As I assess the garden this year, and decide which plants performed well and thus get to stay, and which made me grimace in frustration and shall be composted, I am drawn into thinking about the warped psyches of oh so many gardeners .

Everyone who turns a spade in the ground and attempts to beautify their little piece of heaven is always on the lookout for plants that will enhance their space with minimal upkeep (for the most part as I do not discount those who seek out plant growing challenges and take them on full throttle 😉  )Therefore, plant breeders and hobbyists are always working toward giving us low maintenance, disease resistant and long blooming perennials and shrubs to satisfy our ever growing list of demands. 

It is really hard to have a garden bloom successively successfully (say THAT three times fast!). It takes effort to either prevent or cure plant fungal issues and other problems, be they pathological or cultural. It also takes effort to rip the little suckers out and replace them in a fit of anger when they will not behave for you.

So along comes plant breeder who give us a nicely structured plant, branched from top to bottom, good rounded form, no pruning necessary. said plant blooms it’s head off from the end of May through several frosts (and even snowfalls here in the snow belt)  and does not EVER require deadheading. It needs no winter protection, gets no foliar spots or other disfigurement. And yet all I hear is whining.

In case you are wondering , I am referrring to the Knockout Rose series, and now it’s little brother, the Drift. Unlike many remontant (reblooming) roses, it has no rest in between blooms, it just keeps on keepin on all season. Although I get some black spot on many of my resistant varieties I never see it on my Knockouts. I can cut roses from them for arrangements all season long.

Yet they complaints fly…they don’t look like my glorious heavily petaled Abe Lincoln…….they don’t have any fragrance…hybrid teas are the REAL roses…and on and on….Really???

This is where I think people are funny, and I mean funny- strange not funny -ha-ha. The knockouts aren’t meant to be a fussy hybrid tea- that by the way looks leggy and spotty and the blooms are it’s only saving grace. They are meant to be great garden plants that require no spraying or for that matter any work at all to give you a smile in the form of a rose every time you walk by. They are fragrant if you purchase the right ones (double pink has sweetly scented blooms and the yellow has clove- like scented bracts) and they add so much to your garden while asking so little. Give the people what they want…and they will bite your hand off.

In November I can count on my late mums (sheffield and copper penny) , two other roses (The Fairy and Magic Carpet) and my Knockouts to still be blooming here. That says a lot given that by then we have had several frosts, probably snow, and they have been in bloom since late May. All the other roses are  done, and lots of them get black spot in late fall so I was all too happy to see them de-foliate and disappear.

So in honor of what is usually Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (the 15thof every month)..  I give you roses…..( Red Knockout, Double Pink KO, and Sweet Drift)