As a former small space and apartment grower, you know, I certainly thought that a lot of my options were limited and yes, you do have a little bit less space, but there's always a way to make a type of plant work and roses aren't no exception.

We have Rebecca Crayton back on the show, Bortaculturist at David Austin Roses, Rebecca, a lot of our listeners are small space growers, maybe with aspirations to have larger space sometime down the road, but it's working with what you have right now, and I'm curious maybe we could speak first to considerations for growing roses and containers and then maybe get into some specific varieties.

Absolutely, that sounds great. You know, whether you're starting out at your first place and you want to kind of get into growing roses or vegetables or anything, the best way to do it is to start in a pot.

And a lot of people go, I can't believe roses can be grown in a container, but the entire trick to doing it is to get the right size container.

Deep about knee height is more important than big round. So you do want some breath on it, but what you're primarily looking for is a pot that is deep because roses tend to be deep rooted. So that's number one.

You know, once you have picked your pot, you can decorate a deck, you can maybe you have a large garden and you just have a lot of shade, you can put that pot in the shady spot. I mean the sunny spot, maybe you have poor soil, you can use a pot instead perhaps you're downsizing or you have accessibility issues, there are amazing reasons right there to grow in a container.

So, you know, once you've picked your pot, you really want to kind of look at the material.

Terracotta is classic is absolutely beautiful, but if you travel a lot.

Terracotta breeds and water can evaporate, so you may want to opt for a glazed pot instead.

Whiskey barrels, wooden pots, they're pretty easy to come by and are excellent to repurpose and brighten up a corner of backyard or a deck.

Resin pots are lightweight if you're an urbanite and you are, you know, looking for something that's not going to overpower a balcony and it's also good if you live in a cold area and they're looking for something that will be frost proof.

Rebecca, I'm curious why a pot so deep, I think you said knee height, right?

Yeah.

And is it just because of the root requirements or the soil requirements?

Yeah, I mean, here's the thing, you can grow a rose and something smaller, but then you're going to be moving it up into something larger within the year.

The other thing is if you are in an area that's pretty warm, you're going to have to water non-stop to keep that pot moist enough.

And you don't want to make more work, you want to make enjoyable work.

Right, right.

Well, going deeper is always better.

Got it.

Yeah. Now, the type of soil you put in there is equally important. You don't want to go dig dirt out of the yard.

I've never seen such a great selection for container soil than right now.

...