Updated 1-25-24
With Valentine’s Day less than three weeks away, it’s the perfect time to think about roses — and all the wonderful colorful options available for your Valentine or to plant in your garden. And as our headline suggests, not all rose beds need to be red.
Representing love and passion, red roses are, indeed, a perfect fit for a day devoted to romantic love. But roses can say “Be Mine” without having to be red.
“If there’s one thing we’ve learned at Deck and Patio in our landscaping work,” says our owner Dave Stockwell, “red isn’t the only rose color that people love.”
Peach
June Sullivan’Recent Florist Order
Let’s start with peach roses. A few week’s ago, the writer of this blog needed to send roses. And when asking the florist if they had some in Pantone’s color of the year — Peach Fuzz — they were clearly ready for the question, enthusiastically responding, “Oh yes!” The photo shown here (left) is my order being made up by that florist.
Why choose peach? Peach roses, experts say, symbolize “sincerity, friendship, gratitude, and genuineness” and are appropriate for friends and business colleagues. Not to mention roses are delightful in a romantic peach hue — perfect for your ‘pretty in peach’ Valentine. Also, a darker peachy apricot, for example, can be lovely in your flower beds (see a little further below).
Apricot-Pink
Orange (Apricot-Pink) Roses
Take for example this stunning apricot-pink rose that one of our designers added to landscaping around a client’s pool.
Such a dramatic hued plant gets attention. And in smaller spaces like this, it helps the landscape to recede behind it — causing the overall area to seem larger.
As for this color: without a doubt “orange” roses have the most attitude in the rose family. These beauties are known for enthusiasm, not to mention passion.
The color also suggests a sense of significance and even urgency — perhaps just the right color to draw your loved ones outside on a warm summer day.
Pink
Pink Roses
When it comes to pink roses — like these beautiful ones planted and cared for by Deck and Patio — their color symbolizes gentleness and poetic romance, making them another great choice for Valentine’s Day.
They are extremely delicate and graceful and make an exquisite statement in any garden.
Yellow
Yellow Roses
Traditionally, yellow roses suggest friendship. But they are so sunny that they spread joy to anyone who stops to smell them.
The very earliest yellow roses discovered by Europeans were in the Middle East. But when they brought them home, they noticed they lacked the red rose’s enticing scent.
Through caring and cultivation the yellow rose soon claimed the same aromatic fragrance as their sister flora. You simply can’t go wrong with a garden blooming with sunny yellow roses.
Red
Red Roses
Last, but by no means least, red roses!
When landscaping around a pond we installed for Deck and Patio clients, we planted red roses around it (foreground).
These vibrant reds blend beautifully with the variegated hydrangea to their right and the variegated hosta to their left.
All the plants pictured here will attract birds and butterflies. But the dramatic red rose is the eye-catcher.
Needless to say: Red roses symbolize love and romance like no other and also suggest perfection and beauty.
Valentine’s Day Dinner/Red Rose
As a Valentine’s Day gift, or as a dramatic element in your garden, it’s a perfect choice.
Caring for Roses
Mystic Rose – Photo/Sandra Vultaggio
Whatever their color, roses need a bit of care in your garden.
Horticulture expert Sandra Vultaggio, says roses should be planted in the sun.
“Also, they need a good amount of air circulation around them,” she says. “Strictly avoid overhead irrigation or sprinkler heads. They will get more disease that way because viruses prefer wet environments. Keep them watered at the roots through a drip system or soaker hose.”
Sandra adds that the best time to plant is really any time throughout the growing season. “An ideal time would be early in the season — April or May.”
Knockout Rose
Deck and Patio gets a lot of requests for knockout roses, partly because they bloom for a long time throughout growing season and are much easier to care for.
They are also known to be disease and insect resistant which has made them quite popular.
“Contrary to popular belief,” adds Deck and Patio owner Dave Stockwell, “while knock out roses are extremely hardy and withstand blights, that doesn’t mean they don’t need some care like fertilizer, pruning and water.
Also, some knockouts have succumbed to rosette disease. But if you do the basics, and keep an eye out for any strange looking bright red shoots, these are a great choice.”
