by Angelina Chute
Award of Merit 2017 winner
I’m a big fan of Easy Elegance Roses. They’re not only sustainable and easy to grow, but also produce roses that have great color and form throughout the season. My “old” favorites include All the Rage and Yellow Brick Road. But I have more favorites: Super Hero, Kiss Me and My Girl.
Easy Elegance roses were hybridized by Ping Lim and introduced by Bailey Nursery. According to Ping, the term Easy Elegance was inspired by an ideal lifestyle that was simple, carefree and beautiful. The roses he created certainly have these attributes.
Each year I look forward to seeing the small red roses of Super Hero, one of the first bushes to bloom in the spring. The flowers start out with hybrid tea form and then open to round flat blooms. I like to cut Super Hero because it fits perfectly into a small vase.
All the Rage is a single, but what a gorgeous rose it is with apricot blooms and a bright yellow center. When the bloom is fully open it is 3-4 inches. This rose bush was one of the first roses we planted in our sustainable rose garden 9 years ago and it still remains one of my favorites.
There are now more, newer Easy Elegance roses available. I don’t have room to plant all of them in my garden, but I manage to find space for a few more each year. All the roses described below were on display as potted roses at this year’s Rose Show.
If I had to choose my favorite potted rose on display at the Rose Show, I think it would be Champagne Wishes. I’m attracted to clear, creamy white roses and Champagne Wishes has clusters of white blooms packed with 24-30 petals. The flowers start out as apricot buds — attractive at even the bud stage — and open to white. We planted this rose in our garden this year and the Friday morning before the Rose Show I saw a fresh spray of Champagne Wishes in bloom that I thought I could enter in the Sea of Roses class. Since I had no previous experience with Champagne Wishes, I wasn’t sure its blooms would stand up over night without losing its petals, but the morning of the show, it still looked good. I entered it in the show and was pleasantly surprised when I saw it won Best of Class! Champagne Wishes is hardy to Zone 4.
Last year we planted Calypso in a bed at the back of our garden. It doesn’t get as much sun as some of our other roses, mainly because it’s planted next to our Renaissance Roses which grow quite tall. I didn’t pay too much attention to Calypso last year, but this year when I saw it in bloom, I really liked its delicate, light apricot flowers that have 25 petals. Calypso has a compact, rounded habit and is hardy to Zone 5.
Coral Cove has been around since 2010, but we planted it in our garden this year. It really caught my eye with its bright orange-pink roses. The blooms are ruffled and the outer petals start out as dark pink before changing to orange. The buds are a combination of orange and yellow and just as eye-catching as the fully opened flowers that have bright yellow centers. Coral Cove has 20 petals. It’s hardy to Zone 4 and has a small habit of 2-3 feet.
Little Mischief, a deep pink shrub, has small 1 inch blooms with a white eye that look great against its glossy green foliage. The flowers have 20 petals and the bush is low growing to 2-3’ which make it perfect for a small garden. Little Mischief is hardy to Zone 4 and very disease resistant.
Music Box is a flashy rose with its yellow blend petals that have outer pink on their edges. The blooms have 30-35 petals and the foliage is a glossy medium green. Music Box can grow from 4-5’, but so far its habit in our garden is only 3’. It is hardy to Zone 4.
A shrub rose that would do well in a container is Paint the Town which grows 2-3’ high and has medium red flowers. Its hybrid tea shaped blooms have 20 petals and the foliage is a glossy dark green. Hardy to Zone 4.
The shrub Pinktopia got a lot of attention at the Rose Show with its appropriately named clusters of medium pink blooms. The single flowers of 10-15 petals are about 3” when fully opened. Pinktopia grows to a height of 4’ and is hardy to Zone 5.
If you’re looking for some disease resistant roses to add to your garden, you may want to keep some of these simple, carefree and beautiful Easy Elegance roses in mind.
