Best Roses for the Hot Dry Desert

It is hard to imagine roses blooming in the desert, but roses seem to love and thrive in the hot, dry climate.  The soil needs to be amended somewhat to accommodate the nutritional needs but just give them water and stand back and watch them grow.  Almost all types do well in the desert with a few exceptions.  I dearly love the English David Austin roses, and they do grow and bloom in Las Vegas, but not to the norm as they would in a milder climate. They do not stay small or compact but yet seem to grow huge and sometimes spindly. The tea roses are exceptional in the dry heat and Hybrid Tea love the dry heat as they do not have black spot, yes, you heard me, NO BLACK SPOT. We rarely see any pest or diseases on the roses, which is another reason for growing in the dry heat of the desert.  The desert may not be kind to human’s, but the plant world loves it.




Angel face is one of the first to bloom this year, and I would like to rename her to happy face. This rose just looks so happy in my garden. The shades of lavender with the ruffle blossoms make me smile,


Alychemist took it’ time to bloom, I did not see nary a blossom for the first two seasons, now it blooms it’s head off, and is 10 foot tall and covers my long trellis by the back porch. This is a beautiful rose, but if I had it to do over again I would not plant it in the entrance, the thorns are so vicious and mean!
 

I am not sure I captured the grandeur and beauty of this rose Mme. Isaac Pierre. It was so tall I had to look up to take the shot, you can see it is at the roof line of my house. This rose is consistently named the most fragrant rose ever. I second that emotion! This is the rose I planted four feet from my front door. It deserved that honor.

My beautiful thornless Zephrine Drouhin pink rose.  It is now 10ft. tall by 15ft wide. It does a marvelous job of covering the patio. It is one of the easiest to take cuttings and get new starters. The one I started last year is already blooming.



Don Juan is a common rose and in all the desert nurseries because it is a reliable bloomer.  Nice large red blossoms.



I bought this rose at Costco, something I never do, but just cold not help myself.  I love the bright orange hue of this rose. Marmalade is the name and she is a sweet little thing in constant bloom.



Where would the world be without the Peace rose.  Everyone should plant one. It is no trouble, blooms well and comes back strong every year and the buds are picture perfect even I can’t mess this shot up!



There are so many different roses I want to buy and so little room I rarely buy two of the same kind, but this Golden Showers blooms so well and is the biggest and strongest of all my roses, I vowed this year to buy another one just because I love looking at it.



This is definitely the best rose of all for the desert. You will not go wrong planting Golden Showers.


Marmalade blooming in the garden. It shows nice next to the blue container.











This little or should I say big bloomer is Mme. Caroline Testout. A beautiful climbing Tea rose with big blossoms and so fragrant over the swing trellis.



Velvet Fragrance in the foreground and an heirloom rose Cramoisi Superieur rose in the background.

My favorite Tea rose is Safrano. Light yellow, apricot color is very fragrant and blooms constantly. This particular rose does well in dry heat.

Another Tea rose that performs well in hot dry climates is General Schablinski. It starts out red and generally fades to a lighter pink. Grows into a large bush.

The tea rose Mme. Joseph Swartz always amazes me with it beautiful blooms and steady reliable growth and performance.
 
I first planted Lady Hillingdon Climbing Tea rose when I lived in Alabama. This rose grew to over 15 ft in 2 years and was so fragrant you could smell it down the street. I have this one climbing over a trellis and when you walk under it the smell just about knocks you out. It is a delicate yellow apricot color.