Re: Low maintenance gardens for the serious gardener

---

Ben,

I think there is also a way to look at the current elements you like and figure out ways to duplicate them in a way that reduces their maintenance.

I, too, had a large number of white Iceberg roses for a while, being attracted to them for their lovely display of white blossoms, near thornless state, and disease resistance.  But I found, like you, that they require almost ongoing deadheading to keep them looking neat.  The blooms fade to an ugly brown, taking away from the white swath, and aren't even that easy to remove, given the cluster form of the blossoms.

They are gone, replaced by some green, easy-growing shrubs, but nearby is a bed of 'Happenstance' roses that require almost no care.  This rose, a sport of Mermaid, is somewhat easy to source now than it has been in the past. Check out Randy Baldwin's San Marcos Growers for description and availability:

http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?strSearchText=happenstance&plant_id=1378&page=

Here's what I like about it:
-- plant has tiny green leaves that stay green year round here in the San Francisco Bay Area
-- growth is mounding, wider rather than taller, making a nice border
-- overall size is small. After three years, mine are about 2 feet tall by four feet wide
-- flowers are full size, not tiny like most smaller roses
-- the petals drop off neatly, retaining their yellow cream color, making for a nice mulch underneath, with the stamens keeping a nice appearance on the bush
-- once in a while I "whack" the bushes with a leaf rake to remove debris
-- I have never dead headed this, in fact, the only cutting is to remove long branches here and there that grow out of the border boundaries
-- no pests and diseases and never been fertilized, on a drip system that gets some water once a week

Another rose that drops it petals neatly and doesn't require dead heading is the heritage noisette, Rev 'd Or.  Unlike many of the noisettes, this one has full size blooms in a soft peach color and a wonderful fragrance.  It is somewhat between a shrub and a climber.  I have mine up against a dark blue wall.  It may get fertilizer once a year and is semi-evergreen here.  I prune it maybe a couple of times, once in the summer, but just enough to keep it from growing out of bounds, not to accomplish a true rosebush annual pruning.  It blooms off and on throughout the summer, after a spring flush. No pests nor diseases.

Carol

On Aug 1, 2011, at 10:24 PM, Ben Armentrout-Wiswall wrote:

> Thanks everyone for the feedback.
> With varying degrees of subtlety or frankness, everyone seems to agree that
> No, you can't have a low maintenance garden that really is a garden.
>
> I could see planting a very low maintenance landscape that wouldn't offend my sensibilities.
> In southern California, that might be a grove of Peruvian Peppers or Live Oaks in a groundcover of their own fallen leaves, with maybe an occasional Agave for accent.  Such a landscape would require no irrigation, almost no weeding, and very little pruning.
> And I could live with it; but I just don't think I could call it a garden.
>
> So I concur with everyone else, a low maintenance garden is really not much of a garden.
> Best, Ben Armentrout-Wiswall
> Simi Valley, CA
>