The Allure of the French Lace Rose Plant – A Comprehensive Guide
French Lace Rose, being dazzling, is exceptionally popular with gardeners and rose lovers. It has a popular polished look and is delicate, which makes it attractive. It is undoubtedly one of the Garden Rose’s rare and magnificent fragrant climatic ramblers or coverers. In this write-up, you would get to know about this heavenly plant (French Lace Rose), what makes it popular, how one could care for it to make it more lush, and become a staple in your garden.
The Origin and History of the French Lace Rose
The French Lace Rose is a hybrid tea rose, specifically a cultivar called Rosa ‘French Lace’ introduced in the 1980s by the American hybridiser Jack Christensen and released by Armstrong Roses in 1980. It is the result of crossing the roses ‘Amber Queen’ x ‘French Gold’. To the best of my understanding, ‘Amber Queen’ was bred to have gentle fragrance and flowers with rounded petals, while ‘French Gold’ was especially valued for its then-novel pure lime-yellow colour.
It’s a perfect name for a refined rose with a lacy appearance. Lace is a longstanding part of French culture, and this rose surely owes its nickname to how it resembles lace. Very quickly, the French Lace Rose became famous for the beauty of its blooms and its colour, which is creamy white to pale ivory with a blush at the edges of the petals.
Characteristics of the French Lace Rose Plant
Appearance
French Lace Rose has a wonderful air of old-world, sophisticated glamour. The flowers tend to be medium-large, 3 to 4 inches across generally, with a classic high-centred form that makes this cultivar excellent for cutting and using in flower arrangements.
Pale-peach petals that are ruffled like lace, often blushed with pink at their outer edges, give the flowers a demure air. The French Lace has slightly ruffled petals and deep green foliage that provides a strong contrast to the pallid blooms 1400567915987.
Fragrance
Besides its lovely exterior, also adds an added beauty to this rose in its fragrance. It is a gentle subtle rose fragrance with sweet spicy undertones to it. It isn’t a perfume rose but just a lovely sweet spicy rose fragrance which also makes the rose very well received as this scent also permeates through the garden.
Growth Habit
The French Lace Rose plant is a compact, bushy shrub that grows to between 3 to 4 feet tall by 2 to 3 feet wide. It can adapt to any garden setting with ease whether it is within a bed or border in the garden or an upright display in a container. With a mounded growth habit and numerous blooms, this sturdy plant is certain to display crowds of fragrant blossoms from spring through fall.
Bloom Time
Perhaps the greatest benefit of the French Lace Rose is that it tends to bloom throughout much of the growing season, typically from the latter part of spring to the beginning of the fall. These flowers literally cover this plant throughout much of the year, affording the owner of the garden long lasting colour and beauty. The flowers produce on long stems, single each.
How to Care for the French Lace Rose Plant
Planting Location
Planting the French Lace Rose is all about location. Like most roses, this shrub thrives in a full sun location, a spot that gets six hours of direct sunlight per day at a minimum. But it will also accommodate some partial shade, which is advisable in hot climates where an afternoon respite from the sun’s rays will prevent the delicate petals from burning up.
The soil should be well-draining, and quite rich, with plenty of organic matter, although roses dislike sitting in wet soil for long periods of time (common in mountainous or upland areas with heavy, wet soils) as this tends to produce unhealthy, weak plants susceptible to all sorts of problems such as root rot. If your garden soil is heavy with a high clay content, then again, working in plenty of well-rotted compost, leafmould, or composted garden waste of some description, will enhance the soil, improving its drainage (and fertility).
Watering
Roses appreciate a consistently moist soil, and French Lace Rose is no exception. Provide deep, regular water during dry periods, and do so at the base of the plant to keep the foliage dry and to deter potential problems such as black spot and powdery mildew. Mulch around the base of the plant – 2 inches or so of age-old favorites such as pine needles or leaves will help retain moisture and keep the roots cool.
Fertilizing
If you want to keep your French Lace Rose blooming vigorously, then make sure you feed especially fertile soil to it regularly. Just make sure you use slow-release formulations and feed according to the package directions. These fertilisers are balanced formulations for roses. Water the fertiliser well into the soil and mulch to lock it and your water in on the root zone of your plant. Usually, fertilising is carried out only once in early spring, when you notice new growth on your plants and again after the first flush of flowers. Some gardeners also feed their roses lightly in mid-summer to keep them continuing to bloom right into the fall.
Pruning
To encourage vigorous growth and abundant flowering, the rose needs regular pruning, and pruning the French Lace Rose should be done late winter or early spring, as new growth begins. The first step is to remove all dead, damaged or diseased wood followed by pruning back the remaining wood by about one-third to promote vigorous new growth. As well as the early season pruning, you can also deadhead spent blooms as the season goes on.
Pest and Disease Management
As with all roses, there are some pests and diseases to watch out for that can harm your French Lace Rose, but with proper care they can be kept under control. Aphids, spider mites and the occasional Japanese beetle are some of the pests to watch out for, which can be protected against with diligent use of insecticidal soap or by bringing in benificial insects such as ladybugs to eat your garden pests.
The most problematic roses in our area are those prone to several diseases, most notably black spot, powdery mildew, and rust. Good garden hygiene is one of the best ways to avoid diseases, and includes watering at the base of the plant, giving the roses good air circulation by spacing them accordingly, and promptly removing diseased leaves or canes.
The French Lace Rose in Garden Design
Although the French Lace Rose may not be the showiest rose among all, it is an extremely versatile garden plant. Whether placed in a formal border or an informal bed, it will look as much at home tucked in among other perennials and shrubs as it would as a focal point of the garden. Its colour, too, works well with all the other hues. Creamy white will set off the paler shades of blue, purple and pink beautifully, while still standing out against any sunnier yellow blooms. Here, the pink rose adds a lovely contrast to the white lace colour.
Its old-fashioned form and refined colouring is ideal for fashioning a classical rose bed or border in a formal garden. The French Lace Rose adds boudoir elegance to a modern garden.
Because it naturally grows on dwarfing rootstock, the French Lace Rose makes a splendid addition to a container garden, providing full blooms and fragrance to gardeners whose outdoor space is constrained. A potted French Lace Rose makes a beautiful accent plant, and you can stand alongside it to enjoy the sweet fragrance and blooms on its pretty teacup-sized flowers.
Why Choose the French Lace Rose?
The elegant French Lace Rose is a superior ornamental shrub. Its beautiful appearance, fragrance, and blooming season are unmatched. It is a and will fill the room with perfume on a hot summer day. Its care requirements are low considering the results, making it a good shrub for both beginner and advanced gardeners.
But, on the other hand, the French Lace Rose can be used nearly anywhere, in any style garden, big or small. Small enough to be planted in any size garden, it can also be planted in containers with great effect. And because it is so beautifully classic, it becomes the star of any garden where it is placed.