The Best Roses For Cut Flowers

(From a 2022 interview with Master Rosarian Debbie Arrington. Originally aired on May 20, 2022, Garden Basics podcast)

Farmer Fred

What is America's favorite flower? Well, of course, it's the rose. Something like 85% of all Americans say their favorite flower is the rose. How do you grow them? Well, we've talked about that on this show. You can go back and look for various episodes of the Garden Basics podcast where we talked about planting roses and pruning roses. We've even talked about fragrant roses. However, our next guest we've had on several times talking about roses, including the most edible roses. It's Debbie Arrington, Master Rosarian, the typist behind the Sacramento Digs gardening blog, a daily effort that has all sorts of good gardening tips including tips on roses. And Debbie, I am so into cutting roses now for display indoors. Is this what happens when you get old? You just descend into a cut flower garden mode. And that seems to be what I'm doing. And all of a sudden, I love going out to the yard every day, and picking off some rose branches and bringing them inside for display. And from my perspective, what I'm looking for in a rose as a cut flower is something that maintains its beauty for several days, if not longer. Something that, when I'm picking it, chances are I won't get stuck by a prickle. I mean little prickles are okay, but I don't want anything too thorny if you will, please. Maybe something that doesn't shed a lot while it's on display. Things like that. Everybody has their own criteria, as you might discover. And I imagine, Debbie Arrington, in the world of Master Rosarians, this might be a topic of great discussion, shall we say?

Debbie Arrington 

Yes, it is. Because there are literally tens of thousands of different rose varieties that you could choose from, and everybody has their own opinion of what is “the best”. But the qualities that you describe is a rose that has a long stem, a presence in the room and in the vase, has few prickles, so you aren't getting thorns in your finger every time you admire it. Those are all qualities that people that grow roses professionally want in a rose. And those are also good things to have in your own garden roses. So we have several favorites that we can share with you today. I should add that I'm President of the Sacramento Rose Society, and we just had our 74th annual show. And it was our first show in three years due to COVID regulations. So we had a lot of pent up energy. And our roses seem to, as well, because we had well over 1000 blooms in the room.

Farmer Fred 

Wow. And who won?

Debbie Arrington 

Oh, the the top prize went to Marilyn Monroe, not mine this time. But one that was grown by Charlotte Owendyk. Marilyn is an outstanding show rose. She's one of the best exhibition roses ever introduced. But I don't necessarily recommend Marilyn for everybody's garden because she has some of the most vicious thorns you will ever see on a rose plant. It's only because she is so beautiful she ever made it to the market.

Farmer Fred 

Okay, I'll cross that off my list.

Debbie Arrington 

The roses that were sitting next to her up on the top shelf are both really good garden roses, as well as exhibition roses that fit all the qualities that you want in a cut flower with a lot less pain. And those are Ring of Fire, which is a hybrid tea that is a dark orange bordering on red. And it just sort of flows. And it's a really large, but the buds measure about two and a half up to three inches long. Then when the flower opens fully, you know, it's about five, six inches across is a big rose the color. It has a sort of inner burning orangey color beneath the red. So it just sort of glows in the vase, so very eye catching rows and excellent dark green foliage. So it just really sets it off nice. And it puts out very long stems easily 24-30 inches, this great big rose on the top. So they're very handsome. And the other one that was the Princess of our show was was the aptly named Hot Princess. And Hot Princess is a wonderful rose, both in the garden and in the vase, because it has beautiful form to it, a beautiful point that slowly opens, it has that sort of rolling pedals. That's a dark dark pink, and another one that has this almost fluorescent color to it. And so both of those make them very eye catching. And when you're competing against 1000 other roses, you have to have something that is going to draw the eye to it other than than the other flowers next to it, and it does it in the garden and also does it in the vase, both those roses. One of the reasons they're so outstanding for exhibition is because they put out good long stems. The key to growing long stems is when you cut a rose, is to cut a lot of stem with it. And that includes deadheading to the plant. Right now people have a lot of roses, they've gone through their first flush of bloom. And there's a lot of dead roses on the plant that have spent flowers. Most people will just snip them off  with maybe one or two inches of stem underneath it. So they're leaving a lot of stem on the plant and just taking off a little bit of stem with the rows. Well, roses tend to grow to a certain height and a certain stem length. So if you had a long stem, you'll get a long stem on the next replacement rose coming off that cane. But if you cut a short stem, just like you're dead heading the top of the rose, then the rose thinks I don't need to put out any stem, I've got plenty of stem there. And we'll just put a little little rose on a little you know, side stem on top of that, that other stem. So instead of having a nice, long straight stem, you have this kind of funky, crooked, growth up at the top. And in the garden that looks fine. But if you're growing for a cut flower, cut long stems every time you cut the bush.

Farmer Fred 

Where do you make that cut? I have heard it often said that the place to make a cut when taking a stem for a rose is to make that cut just above a bud that is putting out a five leaflet leaf as opposed to a three leaflet leaf.

Debbie Arrington 

Yes, you always go down to five leaflet because the leaflet right there at the base of that  leaflet, where it attaches to the stem, is the node. And that node is what is going to generate the next step. You want that down farther in the plant. And you also want it to be pointing outwards, away from the inside of the bush so that when that new growth comes, it will be growing out, and not in. That improves air circulation inside the bush. It also makes for straighter stems because it doesn't have to compete with other stems inside the bush.

Farmer Fred 

One of my criteria also for going out to the yard and picking roses as a cut flower is I really like it when there's a bunch of roses all in one spot. I'm thinking of the Sally Holmes, there seems to be a gaggle of roses that are attached to what would be a long single stem and it fills out a vase very nicely.

Debbie Arrington 

Yes it does. That's what's called a spray. That's a multiple buds on one stem. All roses will produce a spray, some more than others. Some roses are bred specifically to produce large flower heads like that, also called large spreads. And Sally Holmes is one of those. Sally Holmes is a white climber. The flowers are single and they look like apple blossoms. And actually roses are a distant cousin of apples. So Sally Holmes, you can really see the relationship between the two. And Sally Holmes is one of those roses that will literally cover a fence or a house if you let it. It grows very vigorously, very fast. But it does put out one stem for a full bouquet, with easily eight to 12 flowerheads on that one stem. Other roses that are bred that way are the floribundas. And floribundas are a class of roses that were introduced about 100 years ago from breeding and what their name literally means is abundant flowers. And they are roses that  instead …

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