If you have wanted to add more roses to your landscape, now is a good time to get them ordered. There are many companies such as Antique Rose Emporium that ship directly to your home and let you decide on the delivery date. Popular varieties sell out quickly, so don’t dawdle.

If you are one of those gardeners who enjoys roses, but couldn’t be paid to grow them because you think they are too high maintenance, you will be thrilled to learn about antique roses and Earthkind roses. These roses are roses for busy people. If you can grow weeds, you can grow Earthkind and antique roses.

Earthkind is a group of roses that have been rigorously tested in several sites around the country including here at our own test garden at the Jack Brooks Regional Airport. Rules of the trial stipulate that the roses are never fertilized, never sprayed and never pruned except to remove dead wood. They receive no supplemental water after the first year.

When planting an Earthkind or antique rose, choose a location with good air circulation and make sure it gets a minimum of six hours of direct sunlight. Plant in raised beds in a soil mix of one-third compost, one-third sand and one-third manure. Top with 3-4 inches of hardwood mulch, which improves the soil as it decomposes. These roses are highly resistant to pests and disease. They are grown on their own root and show good heat and drought tolerance.

A word about irrigation: Never water at night and then only water the soil around the roots. Never water the flowers. Drip irrigation is the best choice for this job.

To date, 21 roses have earned the Earthkind designation. Many are antiques roses, also known as OGRs — old garden roses. From dwarf to medium shrubs to mannerly or vigorous climbers, there are many sizes and color choices available. Belinda’s Dream, Marie Daly, Mutabilis ( a personal favorite of mine because it blooms three colors at once) and the widely used Knockout are a few of the beautiful options.

And there are even more in the antiques category. Antiques are equally low maintenance but do not necessarily have the Earthkind designation. You can’t go wrong with either one.

Surely there are one or two you can incorporate into your landscape for beautiful maintenance-free beauty.

For more information, contact Micah Leigh at mkleigh64@gmail.com or call Texas A&M AgriLife Extension at 409-835-8461.