This is a rose certification program from Texas A & M University. It is completely different from the roses that I’ve discussed so far because Texas A & M studies existing roses of all types for the same characteristics of drought tolerance, and pest and disease resistance. No breeding is involved, and no new roses are introduced.

In general, a rose that undergoes study in the Earth Kind trials spends 4 years at Texas A & M. It then spends another 4 years in various parts of Zones 7-9 Texas undergoing trials. There are now various Earth Kind trial gardens in other states as well (for those concerned, as I was, about the hardiness of these cultivars).

During the 8 year trial period, no fertilizer of any kind is permitted. No irrigation, after the initial year, is permitted. No pesticides are used. (In short, these roses are grown very much as if they are in my yard!)

A list of these roses can be found at the Texas A & M web site. The original Knockout® rose, for example, is one of the EarthKind® roses. Another common rose that is widely available that has been certified as an Earthkind® is a polyantha rose called ‘The Fairy.’ The photo above is of a version of the ‘Fairy’ rose called the ‘Red Fairy.’

The EarthKind® program has two types of climbers and three sizes of shrub roses currently certified. One hybrid tea has been found worthy of being called an EarthKind rose.

If you are searching for sustainable roses but are not currently in love with any of the offerings that the breeders have on the market, perhaps this is the answer for you. It certainly gives rose growers and lovers a variety of options.

Another line of roses that I can highly recommend is the OsoEasy® Roses by Proven Winners. This is a growing line of landscape roses that comes in a wider variety of colors than any of the other offerings on the market. While Proven Winners advertises most of the roses as generally 1-2′ tall, mine have gotten easily 3′ tall–still a fairly dwarf size for a mature rose. They are hardy, disease and pest resistant and drought tolerant and they do bloom all summer as well. Currently there are 13 roses in this series and I believe Proven Winners continues to add roses each year.

I received my First rose, Oso Happy Candy Oh! (botanically Rosa ‘ZieMartinCipar’) in 2010. It came late that season and probably didn’t get into the ground until July. That summer was quite hot, with many days in the 90s and a few over 100. The bed I put them in doesn’t have ready access to water (like most of my yard) and because of my heavy clay, I don’t mulch because that just invites disease and fungus, rather than preserving soil moisture.

So to ensure you understand the picture, I plunk 4″ roses down into an unirrigated bed in the middle of a hot July and leave them to sink or swim. Got it?

They survived my New England winter and bloomed beautifully the next year, 2011. By 2012, they were blooming so beautifully (at top, with another Proven Winners shrub, the hydrangea, Invincibelle Spirit [again, botanically hydrangea arborescens ‘NCHA1’]) I didn’t know how I’d gardened without them!

Since 2010, Proven Winners has sent me two other roses in this series to test (Full disclosure: I regularly test shrubs for Proven Winners and they provide me with these shrubs). I have received Oso Easy Peachy Cream and Oso Easy Honey Bun, both roses in the peach, yellow, cream family (my favorite color family, just by chance). Both of these are still immature and not as prolific as Oso Happy Candy Oh! but they certainly have proved as easy and carefree in terms of watering requirements, and pest and disease resistance.

I cannot say enough good things about these roses. And yes, they too resist that nasty sawfly larva that so disfigures my David Austin roses. So if you’re looking for a rose that isn’t a Knock Out rose, this might be the one to try!

Normally, I would not include any of the David Austin English Roses in the category of “Easy Care” roses. In fact, a lovely photo of leaves scarred by the sawfly larva coming up next week for “Wordless Wednesday” and it is in my existing bed of David Austin Roses. It’s a problem I’ve had with them for some time. It doesn’t keep me from growing them–it just keeps me from enjoying them to the fullest at their peak bloom, so I consider that a major drawback.

I was visiting a local garden center recently and came across two new varieties, the one I show above, Darcey Bussell, and Lady Emma Hamilton. Now since David Austin comes out with new roses every year, I gave them a passing glance and went on to get what I needed.

A few days later, I came across this post on Gardenrant about some David Austin roses that Elizabeth Licata had tried last year. For her they had proved to be disease resistant and continuous bloomers–just the thing I look for in an “easy care” rose. To my surprise, they were the same roses my garden center was offering. I ran back for the Darcey Bussell (who was a British ballerina–I looked her up) because it fit the color scheme of the other “easy care” roses I was testing this year.

From the moment I put the rose in the car (even before, really, because I’ve always adored the David Austin roses) I was in love. All the way home, I could smell this rose–that’s right this rose actually has a scent! Right there, that makes it different from every other rose I’ll discuss this month.

In addition, its blooms are larger and more “rose-like” in structure. In fact, they almost look like the old-fashioned cabbage roses.

They’re still not suitable as cut flowers because they are rarely borne on single stems–like most shrub roses, they are borne in clusters. But for me, that’s okay–more roses to love.

If this rose is half as good as promised, it will be fabulous. Now if I can just keep those pesky sawflies from finding it….