One inexpensive way to start a rose garden

This garden includes two Valentine's Day roses, a blooming red heuchera and the red begonia kept over the winter and planted this spring, at left front.

Several years ago I was in a local grocery store around Valentine's Day.

A petite sweetheart rose bush was on sale, and I bought it for about $5. My grandmother Cox raised championship roses, and I love the flower but I find growing it to be intimidating. Championship roses might be in my genes, but these days? It seemed like too much of a challenge to plant a rose garden.

This cute little plant was marketed especially for Valentine's Day ... It would be a lot easier.

It was a live flower centerpiece during February that year. I then decided to keep it alive to plant it out in the yard. I was working full-time in those days, and kept it watered and in a sunny spot of the house.

Come springtime, I placed it in one of the gardens in the backyard. This space is small but receives hours of sunshine each summer day. To my shock and amazement, the tiny plant flourished. A few years later I did the same thing with a sweetheart red rose with white marks on it, and had the same outcome. These petite rose plants are hardy as can be; they just need a little love getting started, and they bloom profusely in June and early July.

Spotted rose plant, now in third year in this spot. 

One problem comes from the darn Japanese beetles, which love to chomp on all roses. But the beetles normally arrive after these roses have bloomed, so that helps.

Also in this garden area is a begonia that I over-wintered. This was helped by tips in a news article published Jan. 22, 2017, in the Home & Garden section of the Quad-City Times: "You're going on vacation but what about your house plants?"

I've used these suggestions before several vacations by now; they actually work, (as does the assistance of a helpful neighbor.)

Steps to take when out of town:

1. Move plants from the sunny window location to a dimly lit area; this will decrease photosynthesis which causes a plant to work harder.

2. Lower the air temperature to decrease the plant's use, or need, of water.
     Alternately, cluster plants together and fill their saucers with a shallow depth of water. For long vacations, drape clear plastic, from an cut-open dry cleaning bag, over the plants. Sticks in the soil will keep the plastic off the plants' leaves. (This cluster method worked for me when we were gone several weeks; but I also had a neighbor check on the water levels one day.)

3 A combination of decreased light, high humidity, and automatic watering devices or the help of a friend, will allow plants to survive, even when the homeowner is not around to cosset them.

This is what I did with the begonia in the garden, and it worked well. Try it! You can save money and have a blooming springtime garden once the weather warms up.