This week we’re on a blooming adventure into the world of roses. Okay, that was cheesy, but if you’ve ever struggled with roses or thought they were too fussy for your garden, this episode is for you. Joined by Robin Jennings from Heirloom Roses, I explore the super interesting history of thisfamily-owned company, from its humble beginnings as a backyard hobby to becoming the only U.S. nursery licensed to propagate the renowned David Austin roses.
We talk about why growing roses on their own roots makessuch a difference in their hardiness, health, and longevity, and how modern breeders are creating varieties that thrive in a wide range of climates. Robin shares practical advice on choosing the perfect rose for your garden and demystifiesrose care, pruning, and fertilizing so you can be as successful as I have been this year.
Whether you’re new to roses or a seasoned grower, thisepisode is packed with inspiration, practical know-how, and all the encouragement you need to start (or expand) your own rose collection. Let’s dig in!
Save 20% on your new own-root rose plant at Heirloom Roses with code JUSTGROW https://heirloomroses.com
Find the full show notes at https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/from-hobby-to-heirloom-growing-healthier-roses-for-every-garden-with-heirloom-roses
00:00:00
I have learned a lot about roses this year.
00:00:04
You guys know I've talked about it before.
00:00:05
I was not a rose person before this.
00:00:08
My only experiences with growing roses had been ones of
00:00:12
frustration, diseases, or the plants just failing to even
00:00:17
survive, much less thrive. Then along came heirloom roses.
00:00:22
When they approached me to sponsor the show last season, I
00:00:25
agreed, thinking that it would be helpful information for you,
00:00:28
my gardening friends. But at the end of the season, I
00:00:31
went ahead and I ordered a rose Bush for my beautiful container
00:00:35
that my mom left behind for me when she moved.
00:00:38
And I had such a great experience with that rose that I
00:00:41
immediately approached Heirloom Roses to sponsor the show again
00:00:45
this year. At the same time, I asked if
00:00:49
they would agree to come on the show as a guest to talk to us
00:00:54
about all things roses and why own root roses make such a
00:00:59
difference in the growth and the health and overall survivability
00:01:04
of their plants. So today I'm just grow
00:01:07
something. We are talking to Robin Jennings
00:01:09
of Heirloom Roses. You'll hear about the surprising
00:01:12
way that the company got started, what it means to grow
00:01:16
thousands of varieties of roses and to run out of space for them
00:01:21
all, how they decide what varieties to offer, and how they
00:01:25
help you pick the best one for your growing conditions, and so
00:01:29
much more. The whole vibe that I got was
00:01:32
that they truly, truly love roses and they truly care about
00:01:39
helping people beautify their space with roses and do it
00:01:43
successfully. Let's dig in.
00:01:45
Hey, I'm Karen and what started as a small backyard garden 20
00:01:48
years ago turned into a lifelong passion for growing food.
00:01:52
Now as a market farmer and horticulturist, I want to help
00:01:55
you do the same. On this podcast, I am your
00:01:57
friend in the garden, teaching evidence based techniques to
00:02:00
help you grow your favorites and build confidence in your own
00:02:03
garden space. So grab your garden journal and
00:02:06
a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something.
00:02:12
So Heirloom Roses is and always has been a family owned company.
00:02:18
In fact, they've only ever been owned by two families, one of
00:02:22
whom was a customer of the other.
00:02:25
But the company didn't start out to be a premier rose grower and
00:02:30
supplier like a lot of us who start businesses around our
00:02:34
passions. Heirloom roses started as a
00:02:37
hobby. Airline Roses started in the
00:02:39
early 1970s. It was kind of a pet project of
00:02:43
John Clements. So John and Louise Clements were
00:02:45
the original founders of Heirloom Roses.
00:02:47
He was an air traffic controller.
00:02:49
And this is what he did in his spare time to kind of decompress
00:02:52
from a very intense job. So I lived on just five acres
00:02:56
out here in St. Paul, OR.
00:02:58
We're about 20 minutes South of Portland and John kind of bred
00:03:03
roses and grew the first used to start growing miniatures and
00:03:05
things like that, just playing around with them in his spare
00:03:08
time. And then he's got really good at
00:03:10
it and interested in it. And so Louise, who was super
00:03:13
artistic, started. She painted a handmade sign and
00:03:17
got a little storefront in Newburgh, which is just the next
00:03:20
larger town, and started selling some of his roses that he was
00:03:24
growing out of this little store storefront.
00:03:28
So that's kind of how it started.
00:03:30
And then John actually had a heart attack unexpectedly and
00:03:35
left air traffic controlling and dove head first into flowers.
00:03:38
It's like a hobby that became lucrative.
00:03:41
And he started propagating roses.
00:03:44
And after he retired from air traffic control, they actually
00:03:47
took a trip to Europe and they met David Austin.
00:03:51
And he fell in love with David Austin Roses and wanting to
00:03:54
bring English style roses to the US because that wasn't really
00:03:57
big market here for that at that time.
00:04:00
So that trip to the UK and the meet up with David Austin was
00:04:03
actually pretty fortuitous. If you don't know who David
00:04:06
Austin was, he was a British rose breeder who came from a
00:04:10
farming background and his sister gave him a book for his
00:04:14
21st birthday called Old Garden Roses and he just fell in love
00:04:19
with them. I mean, this was 1940.
00:04:22
I know that wouldn't be a super appreciated gift for most 21
00:04:25
year olds these days, but it spurred David Austin into
00:04:28
becoming like the premier rose breeder, partly because he came
00:04:33
up with something new. Tea roses at the time were very
00:04:37
popular, but he really loved those old roses and decided to
00:04:42
combine the wide variety of colors and the repeat blooming
00:04:45
that the tea roses had with the beauty and the fragrance of the
00:04:50
old roses. And so David Austin Roses was
00:04:53
born and his first rose was in 1961.
00:04:55
But it took like 10 years for the breeding process to be
00:04:59
refined and for him to develop what we now consider to be an
00:05:04
English rose. When he bred, I think it was
00:05:08
over 100 roses in his time. And so that was really exciting.
00:05:12
He started and they bought the, they had a serendipitous visit
00:05:15
from a neighbor who asked if they wanted to buy an additional
00:05:18
25 acres. And and so they did.
00:05:20
And so we still are at the same property where they raised their
00:05:23
kids and the same house, and we still eat lunch in the same
00:05:26
kitchen that she fed her. Children in Heirloom Roses has
00:05:29
had a very long standing relationship with David Austin
00:05:32
Roses, and a pretty unique one at that.
00:05:34
Well. Yeah, we've done roses for a
00:05:36
very long time. We are the only nursery in the
00:05:39
US that it has license to propagate David Austin roses.
00:05:42
Everyone else who sells David Austin get them from David
00:05:44
Austin. We grow our own David Austin.
00:05:46
But it's not just David Austin's company they work with, Heirloom
00:05:49
Roses features a lot of other pretty renowned breeders, too.
00:05:52
Yeah, I'm seeing a trend too. And a lot of breeders that
00:05:54
they're going, I say it's Griffith Buck style.
00:05:57
Buck was a breeder up in the Midwest who was like a plant
00:06:01
called, you know, rain and that's about it.
00:06:03
Good luck to you. And if you didn't thrive, then
00:06:06
you were out so. That would be Doctor Griffith
00:06:08
Buck. He was a professor and a
00:06:10
horticulturist and a microbiologist at Iowa State
00:06:12
University and he worked with rose breeders around the world
00:06:16
to develop disease resistant varieties that were just as
00:06:19
beautiful as those tea roses that everybody loved.
00:06:23
But his approach was to grow the seedlings in a greenhouse for
00:06:26
like 1 year, plant them out the second spring and basically
00:06:29
ignore them. The only attention they would
00:06:30
get would be like water and cultivation.
00:06:32
He did not spray for disease. None of that stuff.
00:06:34
So if you survived, great. If not, well, it was back to the
00:06:37
drawing board. That's one way to get pretty
00:06:40
tough plants We're. Working with some really great
00:06:41
hybridizers like Brad Shell Beer in Canada.
00:06:44
We always love Cordes Roses and we're bringing in these newer
00:06:48
varieties to market. But heirloom roses actually
00:06:50
takes it one step further because they are dedicated to
00:06:53
growing roses on their own roots.
00:06:56
We only sell own root roses, so that's kind of a differentiating
00:06:59
factor for us and we can propagate them all here on site.
00:07:02
My daughter's actually helping with propagation this summer for
00:07:04
her summer job. OK, so.
00:07:06
Why own root? Because as a, I mean, I have a
00:07:09
horticultural background and we talk a lot in terms of like
00:07:13
fruit production and vegetable production about grafting.
00:07:17
And in that sense, the grafting is supposed to make a better
00:07:22
product because you're taking the root stock of something that
00:07:27
is much more robust and then you are grafting on whatever fruit
00:07:31
or vegetable you want to get from that.
00:07:33
And that partnership is supposed to make the production better
00:07:37
and the fruit stronger and the plant stronger.
00:07:39
But we do know that if something happens to that tree, for
00:07:43
example, and it happens, you know, above or, well, depending
00:07:48
on where it happens above or below that grafting point, like
00:07:51
you have to be careful. Is the, you know, new growth
00:07:53
coming from below the grafting point?
00:07:55
Is it actually the fruit that you want to grow or is it
00:07:58
something else? But overall, we're told that
00:08:00
that's a positive thing. Why are roses different in that?
00:08:05
Perspective. Right.
00:08:06
Well, I mean, grafting isn't terrible.
00:08:08
It's it's manipulating the plant.
00:08:11
We prefer to do things as much as nature intended it as
00:08:14
possible. So with not grafting roses using
00:08:18
only own root, the plant is completely the same.
00:08:21
So the root stock there, you know, the roots, the the top of
00:08:25
the plant. I just do this little hand,
00:08:27
weird hand actually. It's all the same thing, right?
00:08:29
So Ben often tells a story about running over a rose with a lawn
00:08:33
mower and because it was own root, it just came right back
00:08:36
because it's the same plant. If you would have done that to a
00:08:38
grafted rose, you're going to get Doctor Huey or some, you
00:08:42
know, Fortuna, some other sort of root stock coming back.
00:08:46
So we think it well, we know that it makes it the plants are
00:08:49
much hardier in the long run because they're all the same
00:08:52
plant. There's no risk of risk of
00:08:53
damage to the grafting point. They're not susceptible to
00:08:57
winter damage. So a lot of those colder zones
00:08:59
654, you know they're going to have trouble with freeze or
00:09:03
things like that. You're not fighting root
00:09:06
suckers. So there's there's only basil
00:09:09
brakes. So it's all good stuff coming.
00:09:11
When you see a new basil brake coming out of the ground, it's
00:09:13
super exciting. I think it was last year, Ben
00:09:16
was out walking the stock fields and we had a basil break off of
00:09:18
one of our mother plants and it had a bloom on it.
00:09:21
It was like this tall with a bloom right at the tip.
00:09:23
Like it was gorgeous. And just like that's why we love
00:09:26
basil brakes is because you know, it's the actual plant you
00:09:29
want and it's making a really full, nicely shaped plant.
00:09:32
Will you define what a basil brake is for the listeners who
00:09:35
may not be really familiar with what that term is?
00:09:37
Yeah, Basil brake and suckers, those are like the two different
00:09:40
words. Suckers, you don't want basil
00:09:42
brakes, you do. So it's just new growth coming
00:09:44
up from the roots of the plant and they're going to be the type
00:09:48
of plant that is coming out of the root.
00:09:50
So if you've grafted, we call it a sucker because you don't
00:09:52
actually want that. You want to cut it off.
00:09:54
If it's a basil break, it's just new growth.
00:09:56
That's the variety that you purchased.
00:09:57
And that's, I mean, and that's great too, because you know,
00:09:59
when you have a plant that has been grafted and you start to
00:10:02
see that sucker growth from the bottom and you get all excited,
00:10:05
oh, new growth. And then you realize, Oh no,
00:10:07
that's not the plant that I want.
00:10:08
I want the stuff that's up here. And so that can be kind of
00:10:11
disappointing. Yeah.
00:10:12
So you've ever seen a rose out in the wild that has two
00:10:15
different color blooms in it? It'll usually have like whatever
00:10:17
like a beautiful pink or beautiful yellow and then I'll
00:10:20
have this red kind of plant and that's the the root stock taking
00:10:24
over is probably Doctor Huey root stock.
00:10:26
So we prefer to do things as natural as possible.
00:10:28
So we, yeah, we're just all the own route.
00:10:31
So I mean, you talked about the fact that they are hardier and
00:10:34
especially in those colder zones, 65, you know, and below,
00:10:37
just because they're on their own routes doesn't mean that
00:10:39
they're just a standalone breed. And I'm assuming that there's a
00:10:42
lot of hybridization that's going on in terms of being able
00:10:45
to get varieties that do stand up to those colder temperatures
00:10:49
and can thrive in all of those different zones.
00:10:53
Can you talk a little bit about what it takes to hybridize a
00:10:55
road that can do that? Yeah.
00:10:57
So I mean, we work with some really great hybridization who I
00:11:01
mean have been working with some of the old garden roses and then
00:11:04
taking some of these newer roses and crossbreeding them to make
00:11:08
more disease resistant, more hearty, gorgeous, heavily
00:11:13
fragrant, you know, whatever we can find heavily ruffled blooms.
00:11:17
We have so many options with own root roses.
00:11:20
If a rose isn't going to thrive on its own roots, like there are
00:11:23
some plants like you were talking about tree fruit trees
00:11:25
and things that do better on grafted.
00:11:27
If it's not going to thrive on its own roots, then we're not
00:11:29
interested in it. It's not going to be for us.
00:11:32
So we're not going to get a plant that needs a lot of
00:11:34
intervention. We're really looking for those
00:11:36
plants that are going to thrive on their own and last for
00:11:39
decades. In terms of production though,
00:11:42
so I mean, I would think from a production standpoint, it would
00:11:46
be a lot more efficient in terms of like from a company
00:11:50
perspective to be able to produce roses more quickly by
00:11:56
grafting them. I can imagine it's a.
00:11:57
Very slow process to reproduce a rose on its own roots.
00:12:01
Yeah, it's a slower process for sure, but it's one that we're
00:12:05
really committed to. So I think if you see like roses
00:12:08
like in your big box stores or something like that that have
00:12:10
been grabbed that they look really big.
00:12:12
They look quite huge and full. And then if you were to hold up
00:12:15
a brand new heirloom rose next to that in a one gallon pot,
00:12:19
which we do defoliate during shipment, which kind of shocks
00:12:21
some people, but it helps the plant to thrive better when it
00:12:24
gets out and it'll it'll flush out as soon as you take it out
00:12:26
the box. But when they hold up, you know,
00:12:28
this grafted plant next to a owner rose, they're like this
00:12:31
one looks so tiny. The owner rose looks tiny, but
00:12:34
the root system was what's so robust.
00:12:36
We have a video on our site where our owner takes out
00:12:40
grafted rose that we bought in a big box store and our roses, and
00:12:42
he takes the grafted rose, he takes it out of the pot and all
00:12:46
the dirt falls and it's just roots.
00:12:48
And then you take the owner root rose out of the pot and the
00:12:50
whole dirt stays together because of such a robust root
00:12:54
system. So we recommend that as soon as
00:12:57
you plant that own root rose within a year or two of two
00:13:00
seasons, I mean, it's going to be on par with your grafted
00:13:04
roses that you purchased as far as size, but it's going to be
00:13:06
last a lot longer. It's going to be healthier in
00:13:08
the long run. So it is a full production to be
00:13:12
taking tiny little node cuttings and making little babies and
00:13:17
growing them out. It's about 18 months from the
00:13:18
time we first stick a plant to when it's shippable height.
00:13:22
We have a branching requirement and a height requirement before
00:13:25
we'll be able to ship any plants.
00:13:28
So yeah, it takes a while. So when we run out of a variety,
00:13:30
it's not like we can just be like, we'll make a new one and
00:13:33
have them back on the site next week.
00:13:34
It's, it's an 18 month wait. So we are planning really far in
00:13:38
advance. Like I'm already looking at
00:13:40
roses with our team for 2728. We have to plan that far in
00:13:44
advance so they have time to grow and flourish.
00:13:46
So that's some dedication to doing things the right way.
00:13:49
Heirloom Roses is also very dedicated to helping us succeed
00:13:54
with our roses, and that starts with being able to find the best
00:13:58
rose for us and not just what we want in a rose, right?
00:14:01
Whether it's a climber or a Bush or what kind of fragrance it
00:14:04
has. But does it work for our area,
00:14:07
for our growing conditions? We have so many options in the
00:14:11
Rose world now. I think heirloom, we have over
00:14:13
1000 roses on our website. We have more than that on the
00:14:16
property. I wish we could do more.
00:14:18
We actually just run out of space.
00:14:19
We have filled every square inch of our nursery and there is no
00:14:23
more space to put another plant. And so, but I mean, there's so
00:14:26
many roses to choose from. So you, you can actually go on
00:14:29
our website and narrow down by how strong you want the
00:14:32
fragrance to be, how tall you want the plan to be, the color
00:14:34
you want it to be, and you'll get tons of selections.
00:14:36
So we now actually have a feature in the top corner of our
00:14:39
website or at the top left of your if you're on your iPhone,
00:14:43
where you can set your zone and it'll make recommendations and
00:14:45
say like this is not good for your zone.
00:14:47
We recommend this instead. So not only do they make it
00:14:50
super easy for us to get the right rows, they want to be sure
00:14:55
that it's healthy when we get it and that it stays that way.
00:15:00
And we also do testing on any plant that comes to our site.
00:15:05
We make sure that we do viral screening on all of them.
00:15:09
We're noticing in the in nursery world as a whole, there's a lot
00:15:14
of disease and things that are just sliding through and we
00:15:17
don't want to ever, ever, ever send out any plant that might
00:15:22
have some sort of disease or infection.
00:15:24
So we viral screen everything and there's been really gorgeous
00:15:28
rare plants that we've got on site and I've been so excited
00:15:30
about them. And then our plant health team
00:15:32
comes and says it's got 1 little issue with it and we have to
00:15:36
burn it. And I'm like, no, but I mean,
00:15:39
that's what we have to do because we're so committed to
00:15:40
the healthy quality of our plants.
00:15:42
Not only do they screen for things we definitely don't want
00:15:46
in our roses, heirloom roses also helps us care about the
00:15:49
things that make them thrive. Yeah.
00:15:52
Well, you touched on a good point that you planted your rose
00:15:54
in the fall. And if I have to plant a rose, I
00:15:58
will always do it in the fall. I mean, you can plant anytime
00:16:00
really own root roses can be planted any time.
00:16:02
You can plant them in the spring.
00:16:03
You can plant them in July. As long as you water them
00:16:05
enough, you can plant them whenever.
00:16:07
But fall for me is like the sweet spot.
00:16:10
I'm in zone 8. That's a sweet spot for
00:16:12
planting. I recommend almost every zone
00:16:15
plant in the fall, but before your first frost, six weeks
00:16:18
before your first frost to let your roots get established
00:16:20
because then it gives that plant a head start in the spring.
00:16:23
So that's why this next, this last season, you saw a lot of
00:16:26
good growth on that rose. This year's because it was
00:16:29
already established before winter hit and so it was able to
00:16:31
take off because we're choosing varieties that are really
00:16:36
disease resistant, really Hardy and strong.
00:16:39
You're not, they're not fussy. They're not like these, you
00:16:43
know, your grandma's hybrid teas that were like crossbred and you
00:16:46
had to baby them and give them all these.
00:16:48
You know, I actually am really hard on my roses.
00:16:51
We recommend when you plant your roses that you, you know, amend
00:16:54
the soil a little bit. You give it some fish fertilizer
00:16:57
the first year. I'm a big proponent of fish
00:16:58
fertilizer, but I've had roses where I brought them home from
00:17:03
the nursery just to test them and I literally dig a hole and
00:17:06
drop them in and I'm like, good luck to you.
00:17:08
And I mean I did that with a rose called my best friend and
00:17:11
it is killing it. I pay that rose no attention and
00:17:14
it's just like happy to be here. Prolific blooming and I rare.
00:17:19
I mean, I give it fish fertilizer, but I don't do a
00:17:20
whole lot. So roses, depending if you pick
00:17:23
the right rose for the right zone, they're going to be
00:17:26
successful. You can choose to ship your
00:17:27
plant up to 8 months past your order date.
00:17:30
So if you want to order a rose now and have it shipped in the
00:17:33
spring, that's doable. So order date and shipping dates
00:17:37
are two totally different things with us because we have that
00:17:40
flexibility. If you're going to be buying our
00:17:42
spring bulbs though, that we're selling in this fall, those all
00:17:45
ship automatically between October and December because you
00:17:48
can plant them, you know, up to a few weeks after the first
00:17:51
frost as long as the grounds not solid.
00:17:53
So the bulbs ship differently, but the roses ship up to 8
00:17:58
months in advance. So you can just order whenever
00:18:01
you find that something reaches your fancy and then you can have
00:18:04
it delivered when your gardens ready.
00:18:07
But we do have a one year guarantee in our roses.
00:18:09
So should something happen, should you know you forget to
00:18:12
move the pot or if you have a terrible freeze, we stand behind
00:18:16
the product and so we will replace your rose for free
00:18:18
within the first year. So you can just call our
00:18:20
customer service. And they respond so fast.
00:18:22
I think like the other day they were telling me they're down to
00:18:24
like a 5 minute, 10 minute response time if you e-mail
00:18:27
them. So it's just an amazing team and
00:18:29
they get back to people so quickly.
00:18:31
All right, when we come back, I talked to Robin about one of the
00:18:34
things that freaks most gardeners out when it comes to
00:18:37
any perennial, but especially roses.
00:18:40
Pruning. It turns out I didn't need to be
00:18:42
that worried. And Robin reveals her favorites,
00:18:45
which is a pretty tough question considering where she works.
00:18:49
That's up next. So I've had my rose Bush since
00:18:54
last fall, and I did just a little bit of pruning on it in
00:18:58
the spring, but I was still worried that I would cut off too
00:19:01
much or I'd do too little and somehow I would mess it up.
00:19:04
It turns out that I didn't have to worry so much.
00:19:07
You have to prune them, you know, once a year I hack them
00:19:10
down and I, I'm not stressful about it.
00:19:12
Like I'm not super meticulous. I just hack them.
00:19:15
We've had a couple videos on our site about pruning.
00:19:17
So I think our top watch video is how to prune a climbing rose.
00:19:20
Now, climbing roses are different.
00:19:22
You have to prune those differently than a shrub rose.
00:19:26
But for my shrub roses, I mean, I guess I kind of fast because
00:19:30
I've done this for a while, but I just look for an outward
00:19:33
facing, you know, node a little bit and I just cut above it on a
00:19:36
slight angle and just go, go, go, go, go.
00:19:38
And so I can do a whole like massive 5 foot rose Bush in just
00:19:43
a couple of minutes because I've kind of got the hang of it now.
00:19:46
But even if you just, I'm not recommending this, but even if
00:19:50
you just took like the top off and just cut straight across,
00:19:54
it's not going to harm the plant.
00:19:56
In the spring, you'll see a little bit of Deadwood or
00:19:59
something that above that node that's not going to grow and you
00:20:01
can just re prune that. But don't overthink it.
00:20:04
If it's a climber, you don't want to cut those main canes.
00:20:08
Climbers will send out these long main canes and you want to
00:20:10
trellis those horizontally to allow for vertical growth going
00:20:14
up. So we have a great video on
00:20:16
that. So I'm a little bit more careful
00:20:17
with my climbers because I want them to be like full.
00:20:20
I've got a fence that I'm training climbers on all the way
00:20:23
across. And so I just keep pulling
00:20:25
those. Tall main canes out to the side
00:20:28
and using our trellis ties to tie them up and then they go
00:20:32
upwards the next year. But for my shrubs, I'm taking
00:20:35
out the the dead anything dead I'm taking out that or any of
00:20:39
the branches that have you know expired have been past their
00:20:42
time. I take those out, I'm pruning
00:20:43
for shape if it's getting too close to this way.
00:20:45
I mean, I'm, I've got 1 climber that keeps trying to come
00:20:48
outwards instead of going along the fence.
00:20:50
So I just keep cutting those canes.
00:20:51
I'm like don't Nope, go the other way.
00:20:53
But they're roasts are really resilient.
00:20:55
So just make sure you've got clean pruners and that you clean
00:20:58
in between your plants. So if there happens to be any
00:21:01
disease in your garden, you're not spreading it.
00:21:03
And yeah, go. For it.
00:21:04
And then I put Robin on the spot about which varieties are her
00:21:09
favorites or the ones that she would recommend.
00:21:12
Favorites of mine right now. Oh gosh, I'm always in love with
00:21:17
Cortez varieties. I just really appreciate those
00:21:21
Madame Anna set. I talk about her on almost every
00:21:24
podcast I'm on. She is about, I think I planted
00:21:29
her a few years ago and within the first growing season she was
00:21:32
about four foot tall. So she is like a beast of a
00:21:35
grower. Beautiful clusters of licorice
00:21:39
scented blooms. She's like a creamy white.
00:21:42
I just love her. She's super disease resistant.
00:21:44
Everything around her can have aphids.
00:21:45
She doesn't ever. She's great.
00:21:48
So that one I love William PJ McCarthy, which is A1 we just
00:21:52
introduced from Brad this year. It's a beautiful pink.
00:21:55
Even when they were only about like 06 inches tall in the pot,
00:21:59
they were blooming like they just wanted to bloom.
00:22:01
There is such a great rose and I'm actually surprised we still
00:22:04
have a couple in stock, but William PJ McCarthy is a really
00:22:07
great one from Brad. Caramel Kiss is another one we
00:22:10
introduce from Brad that's gorgeous.
00:22:14
Someone at work said it smelt like a strawberry Jolly Rancher.
00:22:20
So I like when we get, you know, we when we stretch outside of
00:22:23
the regular fragrance like terms, it's kind of fun.
00:22:27
There was we have another one coming down the line and I was
00:22:31
trying to ask everyone what does this smell like?
00:22:32
What does this smell like to you?
00:22:34
Because I like to get other people's opinions on it.
00:22:36
And we had a mix of people saying it smelled like a church
00:22:40
ladies perfume or a fruity IPA, but there's just so much variety
00:22:45
on our site. I just purchased, I guess my
00:22:47
latest rose purchase because I have a lot of them.
00:22:50
I purchased Francis Milan, so that's one.
00:22:55
It's a beautiful, I mean, if you have never smelled that one, go
00:22:58
to a Rose Garden anywhere. I'm sure they'll have it.
00:23:00
It's a classic and it smells so great.
00:23:03
Amazing Grace. My garden will never be without
00:23:06
Amazing Grace. That probably is one of my top
00:23:09
favorites right now. I just cut 5 blooms.
00:23:13
I just tossed the bouquet earlier today.
00:23:15
I cut 5 blooms and it filled a hole of Oz and everyone in my
00:23:19
house could smell it even though it was just in the kitchen so I
00:23:21
mean that's a great one too. And as if I needed any more
00:23:24
convincing that I am going to become obsessed with collecting
00:23:27
rose varieties, heirloom roses went and made the care of them
00:23:31
even easier with their support team and all of their amendments
00:23:35
you. Can just go on our site, set
00:23:36
your zone. That's the most important thing
00:23:38
when you get on our website is set your zone and it'll help you
00:23:41
find roses that are perfect for your zone.
00:23:43
So just pick what you love and try it.
00:23:46
And if you have questions, contact our customer care team.
00:23:48
They're so responsive. You can take a picture of your
00:23:50
foliage if you're like, I don't know what this is and send it
00:23:53
in. And mint compost is probably our
00:23:55
best selling amendment. It's, it's so versatile it, you
00:23:58
know, it keeps the roots cool. It's a beautiful dark colour.
00:24:02
So it looks great. It smothers the weeds and it
00:24:04
repels aphids and other insects. So it's just a win, win.
00:24:08
I take a box home when I plant my roses and I always dump a
00:24:11
whole box around it. It's just great.
00:24:12
It smells good too. So mint compost is an amazing
00:24:16
option for keeping your roots cool and healthy and the plant
00:24:20
thriving. What else do we have that I love
00:24:23
our I use our fish fertilizer. We do have our own fish
00:24:26
fertilizer. It's called founders fish
00:24:27
fertilizer. I use that on all my brand new
00:24:30
one year plants and even beyond that I do it.
00:24:33
I have a lot of dahlias, so all my dahlias get fish fertilizer
00:24:36
every three weeks. I just dilute it in my watering
00:24:39
can and away I go and everything gets fish.
00:24:41
My dog loves it. I have to keep him inside
00:24:43
because he follows me around when I use it.
00:24:44
But that is just a tremendous nitrogen and just health for the
00:24:49
plant. So I love using that.
00:24:52
And then I have our Boost in Bloom, which is a granular
00:24:54
fertilizer that we use for roses that are two years or older.
00:24:58
Don't use any granular fertilizer the first year on own
00:25:00
root roses. Their roots are just too fine
00:25:02
the first year. But they need that boost of
00:25:05
vitamins. That's why I use the fish
00:25:06
fertilizer. But boost and bloom is great for
00:25:09
years too and beyond. So I just sprinkle some of that
00:25:12
scratch into the soil and away we go.
00:25:14
So I thought I was afraid of roses too, when I first started
00:25:17
growing them, but they're probably one of my easiest
00:25:20
plants. They're probably one of my
00:25:22
easiest plants. And I have a lot of plants in my
00:25:23
backyard. But roses, they're just so Hardy
00:25:27
and resilient. And I water them twice a week.
00:25:29
And I do a deep water and if it's hot and I do a third, but
00:25:33
they don't require much. And it's just constant reward.
00:25:35
And we want people to be successful because it's kind of
00:25:38
like the world is hard right now and things are tough and there's
00:25:44
a lot of solace and beauty in gardens and there's a lot of joy
00:25:48
in giving beauty. So roses are something you can
00:25:51
give away. You can cut them and give all
00:25:54
these bouquets away and they will just keep blooming over and
00:25:57
over again throughout the season unless you picked a once
00:26:00
bloomer. But it's exciting to be able to
00:26:03
be part of bringing joy back to the world and, and sharing
00:26:08
beauty. And that's what we're all about
00:26:09
is, you know, making this world beautiful. 1 rose a time.
00:26:16
Now you know why I. Wanted heirloom.
00:26:19
Roses as a sponsor this year, but also wanted to have someone
00:26:22
on the show to talk to all of us about their company and their
00:26:26
roses and their commitment because they're just passionate
00:26:30
about all of it. I feel like it's rare sometimes
00:26:34
to interact with the company and then make a purchase from them
00:26:37
and then really feel like they have your success as as a goal
00:26:42
for them. Like it goes beyond just, you
00:26:45
know, that e-mail. Hey, hope your purchase
00:26:47
experience went well. Let us know if you can do
00:26:49
anything you know for you and then getting nothing but sales
00:26:52
emails from then on out. Heirloom Roses really truly does
00:26:57
want to help us beautify our spaces with the best roses.
00:27:01
And I for 1:00 AM now hooked. Until next time, my gardening
00:27:06
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and by all
00:27:08
means, add some roses and we'll talk again soon.