In my mind I knew exactly what I wanted for my middle flower garden...a perfect groundcover...a little bit green...a little bit of colour. I did plant several varieties of Lamiums, however this perennial does have a tendency to wander and I really wanted more colour. Ergo, I planted two varieties of the wonderful Flower Carpet Rose Series.In the summer of 2009 I planted the Amber Series, pictured to the right (the image was taken from my garden on August 4th), and the Scarlett Series. Both varieties grew extremely well in my Zone 3 garden. In fact, under my watchful eye and care (I use MYKE's growth supplement), these groundcover shrubs, grew to well beyond the height and width expected. The leaves remained a glossy, deep green and this groundcover rose bloomed well into September even though I stopped deadheading in mid August.
As October drew near I cut the ever-growing shrub to 1/3 of its size...just enough so that I could fit the entire plant under the styrofoam cap. Our winter snow cover protected the plants and thankfully our region did not experience a January thaw as in most years. I find winter thaws and re-freezing really tough on my roses.
As April comes near and the sun warms the ground, I am anxious and maybe a bit nervous as to how these lovely groundcovers survived our Zone 3 winter!
