Nita-Jo Rountree move to the Bellevue, Washington 15 years ago after many years as a Master Gardener and the owner of a landscape design and installation company in Atlanta. She quickly learned to separate reality from the myths of our climate and she has used that knowledge to specialize in roses, one her favorite plants – perhaps her very favorite plant (she’s a bit coy on this subject; I know she loves hydrangeas, too).
She has chosen an impressive list of roses in all classes, all bred for health, or that have proved their durability in our region without a lot of fussing. Many of them are recent introductions that reflect the work of hybridizers for the home gardener, but she doesn’t ignore species or historical roses.
I have a passing knowledge of rose varieties, mostly from a brief period of heavy immersion in gardening with roses many years ago. At the same time, I learned a lot about the frequent spraying and other chemical rites of rose growing, as this was the expectation in almost every rose books of the time. Today, I only know a handful of Rountree’s recommendations. There is a good reason for this as her newer, recommended varieties don’t need the level of coddling I learned, thus avoiding the potential damage to the garden environment, the wildlife of the garden large and small, or to the gardener.
Rountree is emphatic in her most important advice. “Remember: The most important key to successful rose growing is choosing the right rose for the right place. Many books and articles about roses give generic advice for growing roses in a wide range of climates. They are of little specific help for growing roses in the Pacific Northwest.”
Excerpted from the Summer 2017 Arboretum Bulletin.