Gardendaze

Oso Easy™ roses are trademarked groundcover and shrub roses by Proven Winners.  Everyone recognizes a Proven Winners plant by now–they come in distinctive white pots in varying sizes with a large PW on the side.

In order for a plant to earn that “Proven Winner” designation, it must undergo rigorous testing and trials in various parts of the country.  My regular readers may recall me saying that I “trial” shrubs for Proven Winners each year.  By the time they get to me, they are already in limited release in various parts of the country.  Prior to that, it can take anywhere from 5-10 years for a plant to be test, trialled and grown on  before it is released to the public.

This article from the The Register-Guard of Oregon talks about some of the Oso Easy™ roses, as well as two other Proven Winner introductions, Home Run™ and Home Run™ pink.  Home Run™ Pink must still be in limited introduction in our area–I’ve not been able to find it at all and I’ve looked both here and in Massachusetts.

My own experience with the Oso Easy™ roses has been very rewarding.  Last year I was sent two Oso Happy™ Candy Oh! (Rosa ‘ZieMartin Cipar’) to trial and this year I was sent two Oso Easy™ Peachy Keen (Rosa ‘Horcoherent’) to trial.  Neither year has been a particularly easy growing year.  Last year was extremely hot and dry.  This year started off very cool and damp and has transitioned to hot and dry. Nevertheless, both sets of roses are thriving!

Over the winter Candy Oh! tripled in size and it has been in almost constant bloom from late May on.

Peachy Keen has bloomed much more sporadically as I might expect from a newly planted rose but it is thriving as well.  I expect it will do as well next year as Candy Oh is doing this year.

I also planted Home Run™ this year.  For a newly planted rose it is doing well and settling into its new home.  It has not had a lot of blooms this year however.  I am sure that will change in coming years–remember, the first year, they sleep.

I am not giving these roses supplemental fertilizer that way I do with my Austin™ roses.  As I do with any newly planted plant, however, I am giving them a little extra water, when nature isn’t helping, to get through the dry periods.

There are 9 roses in this line and one is sold as a true groundcover rose–Oso Easy Fragrant Spreader™ (Rosa ‘Chewground’).  From the sound of the name, that rose has some fragrance as well.  While I haven’t grown it myself, I can believe it would probably be a good ground cover–the foliage on these roses is lush and thick and is truly disease and pest free.  They don’t get bothered by the rose sawfly larva or by japanese beetles (although as you saw last week, I’m not much of authority on those since they rarely plague me) and they don’t get defoliated by the bane of rose diseases, blackspot.

The roses stay compact too making them suitable for beds, borders, or in temperate climates, containers.  These are fabulous, versatile roses that I can recommend without reservation. The only thing they do not have is a scent (except perhaps for Fragrant Spreader!)!