Can I grow roses in a semi-shaded border?

Answer 1

Nothing like a group of gardeners for a divergent set of personal opinions.
Two rose groups are known to bloom well and remain free of disease in shady conditions. They will still need a minimum of 3 hours of direct, or 6 or more hours of dappled sunlight.
The Old Noisette, or the Hybrid Musks. Of special note are Ballerina, Cornelia and Bubble Bath that have both Rosa multiflora and Rosa moschata in their breeding. I grow Ballerina but it is in full sun and it might even look better with smaller corymbs this shrub blooms so heavily. Some people pinch the corymbs to thin them.
http://www.woodlandrosegarden.com/rose/shade1.htm

I grow ‘Anne Boleyn’, 'Zephirine Drouhin', 'Sally Holmes', 'Cuisse de Nymphe', 'Nicole', 'Outta the Blue', 'Phyllis Bide', a climbing 'Iceberg', many miniatures even Rosa chinensis 'Mutabilis' in varying degrees of shade. Iceberg has the most difficulty but has the least light. Now that it has gone over the roof and into a tree nearby it is picking up very nicely. Very few of my roses get continuous full sun but all grow well in a very wet zone 7b.

My answer is to get them a strong start and grow climbers up into the light as much as possible. I followed the advice of our local Rose doyenne in planting with 5 cups of organic fertilizer. One cup each alfalfa meal, fish meal, seaweed meal, a seed meal like cottonseed, & bonemeal worked into a space as large as I could dig.

Roses will prefer to grow in some shade if it is in the afternoon and you have high temps. However it is very dependent on the zone you live in and the weather patterns for that area.
Roses do well with morning light to dry the dew so they never remain wet long in warmer, humid areas or they may be prone to mildew or BS. The spores need to remain wet for 7 hours at ~70 degrees to germinate or just have 95% humidity.
I spray with horticultural oil over the winter and Cornell's formula in rotation, but all organic, in the spring. Our springs are so wet it doesn't stop raining til July when I stop spraying.

Roses and pH seems to be a matter of defining acid soil. In a lab the concept of acidity VS alkalinity is very precise but in the soil all living things have a range they tolerate. Most plants grow best at a pH of 6.5 as most plant nutrients are available for uptake by the roots at this pH level.
Slightly acidic soils range form pH 5.8 to 6.5
Extremely acid soils range from pH 4.0-5.0.

This definition is based on how the pH effects the nutrient availability. The greatest plant diversity grows with a 'neutral' pH 6 - 7. Roses are happiest at pH 6.5 in 'neutral' soil.
Yes in the lab we call that an acid but in soil it is neutral.

Answer 2

Hi Borderman.

Yes of course you can. Roses like a moist well drained soil, but are not particulary fussy about the pH. Acid soils are often sandy and therefore so well drained that they can't hold on to nutrients very well and roses love food!

You can grow roses on chalky (alkaline) soils fine too, but chalky soils lock the iron in and so an iron feed may be needed if the leaves start to look a limey green colour (chlorosis).

Other than that roses will grow on any rich loamy soil and appreciate a mulch of compost or well rotted manure in the Spring. This will keep the moisture in and weeds down. Feed in the Spring with a fertiliser such as Growmore and again later in the early Summer. If you must spray, spray in the Spring too, once after the leaves come out and then again two weeks later. I don't. You're better off getting a disease resistant variety.

They wil do fine if they are in shade for part of the day. But then again why not pick a variety that likes shade!

David Austin Roses will send you a catalogue if you want some inspiration and has some basic cultivation tips. They're at:
www.davidaustinroses.com

Hope that helps. Enjoy your roses.

Answer 3

Gardengallivant has a point, ask 10 gardeners, get 10 answers. But that's why you asked the question right?

A friend of mine, a past president of the Michigan Rose Society imparted to me a few pointers on roses for shadier areas.

In some cases the problem doesn't lie in the health of the plant, but rather the bud and flower formation. Roses with a high petal count will hold water in the bud, between the forming petals. This moisture causes the petals to stick together and eventually rot. This is more true of roses with higher petal counts. Roses with fewer petals (singles or semi-double) aren't as prone to this. I grew several old roses (from the 1910's) in considerable shade. The bushes themselves were quite good, one was 5'x5', another 4'x6' and yet another 8'tall by 4'wide! They bloomed nicely, but my fully double perpetual almost always rotted on the plant, I'd get some nice flowers, but 40-50% rotted. I was not watering the buds/ flowers, just at the base so it was natural water building up.

So in my oppinion, yes you can grow roses in part-shade areas. But for the best floral show, plant varieties that have fewer petals.

I hope that this helps

Answer 4

Well, roses do like all the sun they can get, but there are a select variety of roses that do well with less than the recommended 6 hours of sun. Here is a page from the David Austin site all about roses for the shade. This page includes shrub and climbing roses. These roses are also very reasonable and hardy. I have four on order but I won't get them until March because they only ship them during the best time for planting in your area.
David Austin America:
http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/Advanced.asp?PageId=2020
David Austin England:
http://www.davidaustinroses.com/english/
Good Luck

Answer 5

Yes, you can grow roses in partial sun. Domesticated roses like full sun, but can be in shade for several hours a day. Some more wild varieties can handle shade half or more of the day. If your roses get long and lanky with few leaves, then they may need more sun. one thing to remember about roses is that they like acidic soils. They are usually happy if you can mulch around them with composted conifers (pine, fir, etc. but not redwood) or use fir bark mulch, it looks good and lowers the pH of the surrounding soil.

Good luck!

Answer 6

I have a beautiful Don Juan in the sun just a few hours day. The garden expert told me the key was to make sure there was a breeze. I followed her advice and these roses bloom often and perfectly. Maybe that's why.

Answer 7

YES YOU CAN...ROSES DONT LIKE TOO MUCH SUN,WELL MY ROSES ARE DOING ALL RIGHT IN SEMI-SHADE.

Answer 8

It wouldn't hurt to try--
roses have got to be watered weekly, and they won't grow near any tree roots.