I am so glad this article wasn't an endorsement for Knock Outs. I'm surprised though that Tom mentions Shockwave & Topsy Turvy. I haven't been too impressed with these. He should have talked about his Julia Child & Hot Cocoa.

Well sure in Sand Diego it's that easy to grow roses. No winter damage, no blackspot, probably no deer, and no Japanese beetles.

Location location location.

I grew roses for nearly 20 years in the San Fran Bay Area and it really was that easy there, and they bloomed from April to November, fairly continuously. And, blackspot was something I only saw in textbooks on rose diseases. Then I moved north.

They're a lot more work here in Washington State, for less return. There's winter kill, from cold if you don't cover and from rot if you do cover. There's deer everywhere. Blackspot is king. Midge. Nutrient-deficient, excessively-drained glacial till soils require frequent fertilizing and watering. And for all that extra work, you get - 3 flushes, from late June to early September.

Sure, easy for him to say! but his point about the floribundas is well taken. Even here they give a good amount of color with less work than the more common varieties. And unlike the rhodies that grow so well here, roses bloom when it's warm and dry enough to be outside to enjoy them.

Every environment has its challenges. When I lived in Phoenix, we were generally disease free (except for aphids) but my water bill was over a hundred dollars in the summer. Here we have powdery mildew.

It isn't the scope of the problem that is important, but how we handle it (just as it is in life). Roses are easy, it is life that is a challenge!

Beth

Loved the article!

Not sure where you live dollsandroses? But, different areas of the country have different strains of Blackspot and
disease pressures.
So, a rose may do good in one area, but, the same rose can do poorly in another.
Just have to find what works best in each of our
individual gardens.

Toms top ten picks in this article are for San Diego California gardens.

I have killed more roses than lived. Lots of them. Even those that come highly recommended on this site. Like the much loved Austin's. 9 of them. Such things as Bonica also 9 of those. Roses don't grow well here partly because its' Zone 5 and partly I'm beginning to think its' soil chemistry. That one is hard to figure. Meanwhile I've settled on ones that manage to survive and are pretty and bloom well. And as it ends up many that are unheard of here.

It's easy to grow them here. It's just hard to make them look good and bloom!

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Nice pics it goes to show not everyone can do what was ment to be (as quoted )easy. I guess easy means different things to different people.

Every garden is different everyones experiances with any (or the same) rose are also going to be different. No one single rose will make the grade for every ones garden regardless of how easy of difficult as it is discribed by the good people who create them or already grow the " rose of easy."

As Tom C may of said and as suggested by some forum readers. After 7-8 million years.... we still seem to be seeking the "perfect rose." If it is (or ever was) already perfect then why do we continue to do what we are quick to willingly change ?

He means in San Diego. The most forgiving, mild, gentle climate in the US of A. Everywhere else it's a little more complicated.

I live in zone 9-10 SW 18. We have hot dry summers that get up into 110 degrees F. We have mild winters. We don't get much rain. I water my roses about once a week for about 20 min.

Mine are new this year ( put in this spring) but so far, they're doing better and "easier" to grow than many other plants. I imagine that what many people are saying in this thread about location/climate is very true.

Camellias are really easy to grow in South Carolina, for example. You just leave them there and they bloom their heads off in the winter.
and they must be possible to grow here, as I've seen gardens with them not 40 minutes from me...
but after struggling with a large camellia in my yard since late spring... it just keeps declining and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I take branches to the nursery, I try to follow their instructions... but it just keeps dying.

while my roses... I've had to do almost nothing to them and they just keep growing and blooming.