Roses are Forever.
Roses have captured the public imagination. They are reflected in familiar literature—think of Robert Burns’ “My love is like a red, red rose” and Shakespeare’s “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” —and in music, for instance, Lyn Anderson’s “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” and Bette Midler’s “The Rose.” They serve as symbols of many things. Rose gardens bloom in many public parks, and breeding and acquiring rare roses is big business.
My Love is Kind of Like a Red, Red Rose
But the roses of such enterprises have their origins in China and other Asian or Middle Eastern countries. Because they are not well adapted to conditions here, they tend to require a lot of water, fertilizer, and pesticides to thrive. They are low in nutrient value to our native birds and insect pollinators. Do you wish you could have roses without those downsides? Never fear, there are native roses! Your love can be like a red, red rose except that it will be pink, because that’s the bloom color of our native eastern roses.
Cards on the Table
Ok, let’s be honest. The native roses aren’t just like the cultivated roses with origins in China. Cultivated roses have been bred to have many different colors and sizes of blooms. They almost always have multiple layers of petals and are sometimes strongly scented. The native rose species are very pretty but generally sport shades of pink, and they have a simpler flower structure that makes their nectar and pollen more accessible to pollinators. They also have a lighter scent. (To me, that’s a plus). If you hunger for similarity to the non-native roses, though, the prickly stems of the native roses will remind you a lot of the other ones.
Why Plant a Prickly, not-Red Rose?
If these native roses aren’t as dramatic as the exotics, why plant them? Well, first of all, if you just forget about the exotics, which are sometimes too gaudy anyway, the native roses really are striking in their own right. They are covered with pink blossoms in spring or early summer and can be quite bright. The flowers are attractive to pollinators (which in turn can attract birds). They produce abundant rose hips in the late summer/fall that persist into the winter and give red ornamentation to the plant. These rose hips are great food for fruit eaters such as American Robins, Cedar Waxwings, and Northern Mockingbirds, and other wildlife such as small mammals. The dense, thorny mounds the shrubs form make great shelter for birds, rabbits, and other wildlife, and this includes providing nest sites for shrub-nesting birds. The shrubs are also fast growers and will quickly fill out an empty spot in a hedge. They are tolerant of a range of conditions. (Different species have different preferences, though, so check them out). Last, they are said to be relatively deer-resistant because of the thorns.
Species to Consider
Carolina or pasture rose (Rosa carolina) and Virginia rose (Rosa virginiana) are the most commonly available species. Some web sources indicate that Virginia rose is likely to be taller and wider than Carolina. Swamp rose (Rosa palustris) naturally occurs along stream banks and in swamps and marshes, and it could be a good choice if you have a wet area to deal with. There are other native species that you are unlikely to find for sale locally, but if you really want one of them, you can sometimes mail order plants that aren’t available locally. (Be sure to use a reputable native plant source.)
What to Watch Out For
These roses grow wider by suckering, meaning that their roots send out shoots beyond the current perimeter of the shrub. I read that Virginia rose will spread to about six feet wide so I gave mine six feet of space to grow into, but I’ve already seen suckers come up beyond that. Now, I’ve just come across a source that says they’ll grow to 8 feet wide. So be sure you allow plenty of room for your rose.
(On the plus side, the suckers are not too hard to pull up, and I’ve found if potted, they will readily grow into the start of a new shrub that can be planted elsewhere in the garden or shared with a friend.)
Beware that there is a rose found in many U.S. shrubby landscapes, multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora), that is an escaped exotic and destructive invasive. It was brought to North America to use as rootstock for breeding ornamental roses and was also planted widely to form living fences of thorny hedges. Its propensity to form dense, impenetrable hedges, however, means it crowds out other plants and takes over large swaths of land. It is now illegal to sell or plant in some states. The flowers are similar to those of our native roses except they are usually white. I’ve seen some pinker variations on Google, though. If you see some pinkish blossoms in the wild among lots of white ones, chances are that you’ve found this species. There is also another invasive from Asia, beach rose (Rosa rugosa) that grows mainly in sandy areas, and its flowers are pink like our natives. You’ve probably seen it at the shore.
You Can Love Roses AND Natural Habitats
Roses are a symbol of love, so it makes sense to plant the species that show love to the natural world. It’s a win-win choice for us and for the creatures we share the environment with: in choosing native species, we reap rich rewards of insects, birds, and even some small mammals. And our rose gardens are still bright and lovely!
Barbara Malt, President of the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society and PA Master Naturalist, author and all photo credit