Homeandgarden: Hedging your bets

Hedging your bets

Replace those ho-hum pittosporums and ligustrums with a wall of fragrant, colorful roses.

By JOHN A. STARNES JR.

Chances are that hedges are not near the top of the list of things that thrill you. Most are innocuous green monoliths that are about as exciting as Survivor reruns.

That's a shame, because they are major landscape features that either hug our homes or delineate our yards from our those of our neighbors and thus help to establish the feel of our properties. When was the last time someone praised your junipers or ligustrums or pittosporums?

However, you can yank up those boring bushes and replace them with shrubs that offer color and fragrance.

My favorite alternative choice for Central Florida hedges is the Victorian-era subtropical class of roses called Chinas. Virtually immune to fungal problems (they may get a brief case of powdery mildew from winter fogs) and bugs, they bloom 12 months a year and are dense enough to shape into a formal hedge. They don't get huge. Best of all, they offer fragrant bouquets for the dinner table.

Just give them full sun and amend your sandy soil before planting with a 3-inch-thick layer of compost, a 1/2-inch-thick layer of cheap clay cat litter and a heavy sprinkling of dolomite to neutralize excess soil acid and supply calcium and magnesium. (Skip this step if you live along the coast, where visible bits of seashell sweeten the soil for you.)

Turn it all under with a shovel and dig a deep hole so that the China rose will be planted 4 inches deeper than it grew in its pot. Deep planting protects the root ball from extreme heat and drought, and the buried stems will form a whole new root system.

Mulch the newly planted hedge with 4 inches of wood chips to keep the soil moist and cool. At first, the deep planting and thick mulch will make this look buried alive. Soon, you'll pick your first blooms as the roses grow and merge into a stunning low hedge mature in its third year.

My favorites are Cramoisi Superieur, introduced into commerce in 1832, and Louis Philippe (1834), both with cherry red blooms; Ducher (1879), snow white; Mutabilis (ancient), whose simple blooms open yellow, deepen to pink, then change to red; Mme. Laurette Messimy (1887), bright salmon; Old Blush (1752), rose pink; and Archduke Charles (1825,) rich pink touched with burgundy.

For a taller yet equally reliable rose hedge, use the same steps and spacing of the plants but treat yourself to the Victorian roses called teas, which led to our modern (and finicky!) hybrid tea roses. They can get a touch of blackspot in summer's heat, but such cases usually are mild and nothing to worry about. They are easily treatable with an Octagon soap spray. (Please see note at end of story).

Favorite tea roses of mine include the deep pink Mrs. B.R. Cant (1901); apricot-pink Mme. Berkeley (1899); deep apricot Mlle. Franziska Kruger (1880); and soft yellow Mrs. Dudley Cross (1907). The latter has few thorns. The spicy fragrance of light pink Catherine Mermet (1869) will complete your hedge-grown bouquets.

For psychedelic splendor, plant a mix of these varieties, or choose just one for a quiet, classy hedge sure to attract admiring eyes and noses.

If your rose hedge gets aphids on the new growth in early spring, either let the ladybugs and birds eat them for you or blast them off with a strong spray from your garden hose. Forget the frequent feedings that grafted modern roses seem to need; instead, give your rose hedge a generous sprinkling of fish meal from a feed store each March, July, September and December.

Prune as needed to keep them shapely, or treat yourself to weekly long-stemmed bouquets as a pleasurable ongoing pruning method.

Most soils in central Florida are quite acid, and China and tea roses prefer sweeter soil. Each March, give them a generous sprinkling of dolomitic limestone.

Your local agricultural extension service can do soil pH tests if you feel that your soil may already be sweet, although that is unlikely unless you live right on the coast.

Tea and China roses have endured the test of time because of their tough, reliable natures and enchanting blooms. They deserve our protection, since more than 2,000 varieties of old roses have become extinct in the last 200 years.

A trustworthy mail-order source that provides 2-gallon own-root plants expertly shipped is the Antique Rose Emporium in Texas, (800) 441-0002. Its $5 reference guide is educational and beautifully illustrated with accurate color photographs. Other sources are Chamblee's Roses in Tyler, Texas, (800) 256-7673; and Roses Unlimited in Laurens, S.C., (864) 682-7673. Sources in the Tampa Bay area are Hardin's Nursery, 6011 S Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, (813) 839-6151; and Personal Touch Rose Services, 4610 Reola Road, Dover, (813) 659-2995.

Note: To make a small batch of Octagon soap spray, rub the soap bar against a cheese grater, then dissolve 1 heaping tablespoon of the soap flakes in 1 gallon of very hot tap water in an old plastic milk jug. Let it sit for a couple of days and shake the jug daily to dissolve lumps, then pour the spray into a spray bottle or garden pump sprayer and spray away.

A source for Octagon soap is DEI Services, 5423 Jet View Circle, Tampa, FL 33634, (813) 889-8889.

John A. Starnes Jr. is an avid gardener and rosarian who studies, collects, cultivates amd hybridizes roses for the diverse regions of Florida and Colorado. He can be reached at the.garden-doctor@worldnet.att.net.