homes.cjonline.com | The Topeka Capital-Journal | Saturday, September 16, 2017 | 9
Rose: New varieties are fail-proof Continued from 7
architecture. Climbers with good flowers offer a secondary bonus of cut blossoms for indoors. Be adventurous with your rose color choice to suit the overall palette of your home and garden. Consider planting just one color on your arbor to intensify its presence. Try two analogous or complementary colors to work together. Planted on opposite ends of the arbor, they’ll come together on top as a haze of flower color each
year. Almost all other vines are too big for this application. Wisteria becomes a monster. Ditto trumpet vines that require continuous pruning, and once established they can be devilishly hard to remove. The beauty of these modern roses is that they are so carefree, and if well selected for your climate, it’s nearly impossible to fail. The simplest solution for a free arbor is to round up some muscle to bend salvaged rebar
or galvanized pipe into a simple arch. Secure the ends in post holes of concrete for a solid foundation. Then plant your roses and train them up the pipe and over the top. Even if you’ve never grown a rose, that dream of a beautiful romantic entry is only one plant and one simple arbor away. Maureen Gilmer is an author, horticulturist and landscape designer. Learn more at MoPlants. com. Contact her at mogilmer@ yahoo.com or P.O. Box 891, Morongo Valley, Calif. 92256. homes.cjonline.com | The Topeka Capital-Journal | Saturday, July 29, 2017 | 9
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