Am hoping the 'Sea Foam' bushes I planted this year will work as groundcovers. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to work with those long canes, as in, do I peg them or let them grow freely, or do something else... I'm looking forward to next year when they will put on more growth and I can experiment.

I don't know about the above-named types, but I had about a dozen rugosa roses growing on my property when I bought it 7 years ago. I dug them up. And I dug them up again. And again. And again. Seven years, & I've STILL got those suckers coming up! My only consolation is that I DID dig them out when I did.

Even RoundUp didn't kill them.

'Pup

'Zephrine Drouhin' is a fragrant Bourbon climber with thornless stems and semi-double carmine-pink flowers. Perhaps that could be trained as a crawler. I may try that myself if I can find this rose (or some other thornless variety).

Does anybody out there know of a thornless rose crawler?

Cheers,
MG

A thornless GC rose is an interesting idea. I have a thornless rootstock that grew from another rose but it is too upright to work for that. A lot of Ramblers would work as they grow low and spreading. I'll have to be watchful to see if there are any out there that are thornless.

I live in an old house that used to be a farm. 10 acres left of the original 140 but still a lot of room. I have some banks that are now just overgrown Northeast jungle. I've been thinking about Rounduping on bank and planting a GC rose.

The one I'm thinking of trying is Grouse also called Immensee. One of my rose books has this to say about it, "Almost the ultimate groundcover rose, Grouse does not get above knee high and spreads out widely and rapidly in all directions. Unlike many so-called groundcover roses that have wide gappy growth, this smothers any weeds beneath." Pale pink flowers and very glossy foliage. This is a Kordes rose that is available from Hortico in Canada. Possibly some other mail order rose nurseries here.

More to come have to go.

Immensee sounds interesting. I don't know much about roses but the Help Me Find website has quite a bit of information and pictures. Condolences BelgianPupWA...rugosa roses have a reputation for growing with wild abandon which is not exactly what every homeowner wants!

Here is a link that might be useful: Help Me Find

The other one I wanted to mention was Pheasant. Don't know its German name. That same book I quoted about Grouse says "One of the most impressive ground cover roses, it has an immense spread and a repeat show of scented flowers, but do not think of growing it unless you have enough room". Also a Kordes roses. Check out HelpMeFind for info and sources.

I think you can peg down the long canes to hold them down. Even though it may look awkward when you first do it (i.e. large bare spot in center of the plant), the increased amount of sunlight will encourage new growth on empty spots. Soon, you'll have a whole new host of stems to peg down, then you'll peg them down, then you'll have more to peg down...

-Audric

I had native rugosas that finally chased me off the property: a nightmare. But I like them and have been thinking of putting in a physical barrier around the area I want to grow them in, something like metal roof flashing. Any ideas on how deep that barrier has to go to stop the spreading?
Kristina

I planted Alba Meidland which was touted as a ground cover. It got much larger (taller) than the catalogue said. Suppose to be 2' tall with a 6' spread. It was more like 3 1/2 tall with 12' canes. A few years after I planted it the catalogue had bigger dimensions. It was a nightmare. Weeds grew in it, it was way too big for the site. Later I learned it was best for erosion control. Taught me to never believe the catalogues, always look the plant up in horticulture reference.

Most roses want to go up before they go out. This past spring I planted an own root American Pillar, a rambler. It is absolutely prostrate. It grows flat to the ground and it would be an effort to tie all those sprawlers to a trellis. I will need to do that but for the moment they are hugging the ground. Does not look, however, dense enough to do any shading of weeds. That part is always quite doubtful given the tremendous capacity of weeds to oversome any obstacle. I do need to try it! I will, I will!

I was at Heirloom Roses and they had one growing called Green Snake. I thought the foliage was very nice, it isn't a continuous bloom. It is prostrate. You might check our their web site. They have some others that are also ground covers.I think some of them can get pretty big, but they would be great if you had the space.

Carpet of color was also very pretty.

I've heard about Greensnake and seen pictures. A creation of Louis Lens I think it is in Belgium. He does some good stuff. Never have seen it nor so many other roses I get interested in. In this part of the world there are few rose gardens nearby and people don't plant roses much. Hybrid teas get pushed and they don't grow well here so people give up.

So we have to depend on books, catalogs and comments on GW. And in the end it gets down to finally breaking down and buying them to see for ourself. Heirloom has a beautiful catalog but I'm pretty leary about their enthusiasm for their roses. But I must say they are willing to get some out of the ordinary roses.

Personally I've found satisfaction from Kordes roses I've tried. So I may in my experimentation go with one of theirs. Probably Grouse to start with. One of the things about a big rose company is they grow thousands of seedlings every year and by the odds are more likely to come up with a good rose. Also given the sheer number of roses to select from there is more to look at and choose from.

I too am looking into adding groundcover roses to a slope in my front yard. But rather than worry about weeds that
come up I am planning on black landscape fabric and then
mulch.

The whole reason for the groundcover rose is because
I have no desire to mow down a slope no matter how small
an area it is.

I also plan on putting in some spring bulbs, that the foilage dies back leaving only the roses in the summer time.

All the ads I have read say they are disease resistant.
Does anyone know about pest resistant??
Thanks
Mary

Then I would add an extra plant, like alpine strawberry.
It is in the rose family, plus you get nice snacks when you pass by.
A guy on St. Mary street here in New Orleans planted a Magic Carpet rose as a groundcover: his front yard is now a three foot deep torture garden of rose and weeds. He could set it on fire but his house is on the property!
I will say Baby Ballerina is a beautiful rose that drapes nicely and would cover the ground well. Mine is in a pot (as is the Rosa Bractata. Now, that's a groundcover. Especially if you don't want anybody stepping on your ground.)

If you have a bank where errosion could easily happen, then the groundcover roses that root-as-they-go are the only ones that will both hug the ground and prevent errosion. The 'Green Snake' and the 'Fairy' roses are two cultivars that root as they go. The 'Fairy' cultivar is a continuous bloomer that is extreemly hardy for fast draining surfaces like encountered on sharp slopes. If you plant these or other root-as-they-go varieties on your bank, also plant a quick cover low growing groundcover that is not invasive, because the groundcover roses mentioned above can take up to three growing seasons to fill-in thick enough to prevent errosion and shade out weeds.

Do not plant groundcover roses on your bank that do not root everywhere their cains touch the ground. Those groundcover roses that do not root-as-they-go should only be used on level grades that are not prone to errosion or saturation slump.

Depending on how long your the bank is, decide how many bushes that you ultimatly need. I would then plant just 1/8 or 1/4 that number of the total needed rose shrubs. Then all the runners each plant sends out that touches the ground and roots can be dug up and cut from the parent bush. Then,immediatly plant the dug up sprouting new growth in a location of the bank that is well away from the original.

Following the process that I described, in my opinion, is better than purchasing and planting at the very beginnig the total number of rose bushes, which you will ultimately need to cover the entire area.

Save money and yourself from more problems by following the above described method suggestion. This method also avoids pushing the spreading process to the point were too many plants are spreading too much and overgrowing the desired area way sooner than desired.

Remember, that with any ground cover, once the desired area is covered, the spreaders must then be thereafter always prevented from spreading into undesired areas.

The good thing about the 'Green Snake' and the 'Fairy' groundcover type cultivars is that they do not spread under and above ground like bermuda grass grass spreads. This type of groundcover rose,is easier to simply keep pruned back as the surface spreading cains try to grow and root beyond the desired boundries.

I have a overflow ditch between the front of half my lot and a city steet. I planted 'Fairy' groundcover roses on both banks, because it will be easy for me to cut away all cains that try to grow onto the street or to grow into my property. As long as I get to the cains before their ends touch the ground long enough to root, that task should not be any more work than it takes to weed away the grass that grows along walls and fences where the mower will not reach.

In the winter, the roses will drop their leaves, but the cains should remain to buffer winds from blowing surface top soil away. At every ground contact point the roots still hold the soil and prevent melting snow, which saturates or flows down the slope, from eroding the bank.

Katrinal

Thanks so much for your invaluable comments about actually planting and caring for ground cover roses. My efforts so far have been largely the planting phase. It is good to know of some of the hazards and what to do about them.

Katrina1 re your 2005 note what quick non-invasive ground covers do you suggest be grown with Fairy or green snake for erosion control on Very hot, very arid, vary windy berm Great comments . Thanks.

Where can I get the Kordes game bird roses in the U.S.?

Did anyone try any of these ideas? I am looking to plant a rose bush that would cascade down my sloped front yard, and just go crazy. I want to lay rockscape down to prevent weeds, so the rose canes would be cascading over rocks. I'd like to choose something low to the ground.