The Rose Garden of
Bob & Kitty Belendez
Here's What an Exhibitor's Rose Garden Looks Like
By Kitty Belendez
Master Rosarian
Santa Clarita, California
The Belendez Rose Garden is located in Santa Clarita, California. Bob and Kitty grow about 300 roses of all types. Approximately 58 hybrid teas, 54 floribundas, 56 miniatures, 45 minifloras, 17 old garden roses, 26 Austin shrubs, and a few other miscellaneous roses. Our summers are hot and dry, with temperatures often reaching 100 and above. Humidity is rare. Our winters occasionally dip down into the 30's at night, with averages in the 50's during the days. We do not need to winter protect.
This is the front of our small tract home which sits on a tiny 50 x 100 foot lot. The roses are tightly packed in.
We exhibit our roses! We spray fungicide and insecticide only during rose show season (March, April, and October). We also spray once during the winter with a horticultural oil.
Spider mites can be a problem in the summer, but are kept under control by washing the foliage daily with a water wand. We spray with the miticide Avid about twice a year, late spring and early summer. Chilli thrips and San Jose Scale often damage roses.
We grow shrubs, old garden roses, and polyanthas in our back yard. The main feature is a swimming pool, spa, and waterfall. Most of the 120 minis and miniflora roses are in the back yard, all grown in 7-gallon or 10-gallon pots, and sometimes 15-gallon containers.
We have sandy soil, good drainage and have an automatic watering system that covers most of the big roses. Our roses are given plenty of water, and mostly grow in full sun with good air circulation.
We grow six St. Patrick hybrid teas. We have won more trophies (113) with St. Patrick than with any other rose we grow.
Here's a neat view along the sidewalk. This is where my neighbors love to take a stroll. On the left is a bed of about 40 floribunda roses. On the right is one of the raised hybrid tea beds.
My favorite hybrid tea roses are St. Patrick, Miss Kitty, Gemini, Let Freedom Ring, and Black Magic.
We mulch twice a year, early spring and early fall. We use Kelloggs Gromulch and apply it all around the garden.
My rose garden never gets blackspot, only rarely rust, and just a little bit of mildew in early spring and early fall. Sometimes we will get a touch of anthracnose if we have continual rains in the spring. Spraying with Compass or BannerMaxx easily keeps these diseases under control.
My rose garden is very clean right now. There are no diseases. I have not sprayed any chemicals in two months. We lightly deadhead just the bloom heads in the summer, which keeps the bugs away, and leaves lots of foliage for the plant.
I will begin the spraying regimen again in late September so that I can have exhibition blooms for the October rose shows.
We feed our roses well with all sorts of organics, granular and water soluble fertilizers. We also use alfalfa pellets and SuperThrive. And we foliar feed with Response seaweed that is added to whatever pesticide we are using at the time.
We have a row of tree roses growing along the edge of my swimming pool. There used to be five, now only 4 (the center one was removed) because Playboy (orange) and Graceland (yellow) got too big. We sometimes grow petunias or Pansys at the base of the tree roses.
Here is another view of the front yard. This plant of 'Lavaglut' floribunda rose is one of 10 floribundas that are placed along the driveway. Some of the other floribunda roses in this section are 'Brass Band', 'George Burns', 'Trumpeter', and 'Marmalade Skies'. In the background are hybrid teas roses
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