4 Best Easy-Care Rose Varieties to Grow at Home, According to a ‘Rosarian,’ AKA Rose Expert

Growing your own roses can be pretty intimidating. Thorns aside, the flowers have a reputation for being disease-prone and hard to care for. While that’s true in some cases, Will Wallace, rosarian (expert rose gardener) and curator of the Cranford Rose Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, says there are easy-care roses that are perfect for growing at home.

“Everybody’s trying to come out with disease-resistant roses right now,” says Wallace. “Last century, what drove the market was those who grew roses for flower shows. So the hybridizers didn’t focus on disease resistance because everyone was spraying, using chemicals, harsh chemicals. They were focused more on flower form and color. But now it’s for the home grower, and they want disease resistance and fragrance. So that’s where the market is going.” (FYI, while fragrance is starting to make a comeback, Wallace notes that many of the disease-resistant roses have little-to-no scent, so you may not get much pleasure from stopping to smell them.)

When planting roses, Wallace says it’s much better to start with bushes rather than seeds. “Growing roses from seeds is more left to the hybridizers or the true rose enthusiasts,” he explains. “But for beginners should buy shrubs. You can buy them potted as growing rose bushes, or you can buy them as bare-root roses.” The latter are just bagged plants with all the dirt removed from the roots. They do best when planted at the beginning of the growing season. “They’re a little trickier than buying potted roses because with bare-root roses, you have to get them in the ground soon upon arrival,” says Wallace. But the upside is that they tend to be a bit cheaper and there’s more variety.

Learn about four varieties of disease-resistant, easy-care roses you can plant at home—plus, shop potted versions below if you don’t have a local nursery.

Easy-care roses to get for your garden

Knock Out

There’s a reason these roses are a TKO: They offer repeated blooms from spring to frost, can fit into any landscape, and survive in most climates. Knock Out roses are available in varying shades of pink, red, coral, yellow, and white.

Drift

“They’re a little shorter in stature than Knock Oust, so they’re kind of good for smaller spaces or even containers,” Wallace says. “And they have a lot of bloom power and a lot of disease resistance.”

Flower Carpet

The Flower Carpet series, also known as the Carpet series, has great bloom power and is very, very disease resistant, says Wallace.

Oso Easy

“Oso Easy are generally trouble-free, although they give me a little more trouble than say the Knock Outs and the Drift Roses, but the flowers are nice,” says Wallace. “They tend to be smaller than Knock Outs and even Drift Roses, so they’re a little more precious, petite.”

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