Growing roses in the Pacific Northwest is both a delight and a challenge. Our Rose Guide describes the various types of roses grown here, including popular new rose types, and provides details on how to plant, nourish, maintain and protect your roses on the west coast.

In Greek legend the rose is the handiwork of the gods themselves, an Olympian original created to immortalize the unique loveliness of a young maiden who had died. Aphrodite, godess of love and beauty, blessed the new flower with brilliance, beauty, joy and charm. Fragrance and nectar were gifts from Dionysius, god of wine. The name honored Eros, god of love.

Emblem of love, beauty and youth in Greek and Roman cultures, the rose became an obsession of royalty in early 19th century France as the Empress Josephine filled her garden at Chateau de Malmaison with a collection of her favorite roses, the largest gathering of roses ever made to that time.

Through the centuries a mystique of romantic love and regal elegance has clung to this classic flower. Today, among flower lovers everywhere the title the Greek poetess Sappho bestowed upon the rose in 600 B.C. still captures faithfully its image as "Queen of Flowers".

The atmosphere of royal splendor encompasing the rose sadly delivers at the same time a slightly daunting picture to some home gardeners who see the rose as an elitist plant, an elusive object of their desire. This, they fear, is a beauteous fusspot demanding elaborate nurturing at expert hands.

Not so. The best roses available to home gardeners today have been bred for strength and durability, and resistance to disease. Given careful variety choices and growing conditions under which roses thrive naturally, the cultivation of this plant can be happily hassle-free -- almost, one might say, a bed of roses.