Potted Shrub Roses for Instant Color

Have small space to plant or little time to garden? Then look no further than a shrub rose. A potted Star® Landscape Shrub Rose blooms from spring well into fall frost with little care for year-round color and non-stop blooming

Shrub roses look beautiful cascading from a hanging basket or spilling over the sides of a container either alone or mixed with perennials or annuals. They are "user-friendly."

According to Bruce Butterfield of the American Gardening Association, shrub roses are one of the hottest trends in gardening today.

"Think of shrub roses as a flowering plant -- not a rose," Butterfield says. "You don't have to have a green thumb to make them grow. Just plant in a sunny spot, water them and watch them grow. They are the perfect plant for today's busy homeowners."

Here are some easy ways to create instant color in your garden or on your patio or deck.

Cluster several containers of the new super hardy raspberry pink AARS winner 'Knock Out' for a dramatic effect.
Mix Knock Out with its bright yellow sister Carefree Sunshine, new for 2001, for a cheerful display.
Fill a large container with white Ice Meidiland® and red-hot Fire Meidiland® with blue ageratum for a patriotic Fourth of July planting.
Fill a half-barrel of two plants of Carefree Delight™ underplanted with colorful annual foliage.
The mauve pink Fuchsia Meidiland®, creamy white Mystic Meidiland® and pink Magic Meidiland® do beautifully in hanging baskets.

Roses are thirsty plants so Butterfield recommends using large, self-watering containers. This reduces stress of going from dry to wet.
Use a good peat based planting mix with water crystal, such as PRO-MIX® Hanging Basket & Planter Mix. These crystals absorb and store water until plant roots need it. You water your plants about half as often.
Cover the drainage hole with a stone or a potshard and add a little moistened mix. Place the plant on the mixture and fill up to the little knobby spot above the roots.
Water gently and thoroughly to settle the mix around plant roots and to saturate crystals to maximum capacity. Water thoroughly again in a few hours and keep moist for the first several weeks after transplanting.
Mulch your container as you would the garden. Mulching buffers the cycle from wet to dry, keeps the feeder roots from drying out and helps to establish the roots quicker.
PRO-MIX contains enough starter fertilizer to help plants acclimate to their new pot but after a few weeks, sprinkle a slow-release or timed fertilizer on top of the container and water. This is better than hitting them with a dose of liquid fertilizer.

When planting containers, think easy care Star® Shrub roses for long lasting, maintenance free color.

To find out more about these and other fine Star® Roses, or to find a garden center near you, visit www.starroses.com.