Best Roses for Utah

A rose cane that blackens and dies back after a hard Utah winter usually means the variety was a poor match for the yard, not that you did something wrong. Hardy shrub roses, repeat-blooming climbers and disease-resistant series do well in Utah, while hybrid teas ask for extra help. The choice comes down to cold, summer disease and your patience.

Best Roses to Grow in Utah

Hardy shrub roses and repeat-blooming climbers suit Utah because they handle cold with little care. Tender types need protection. On the USDA hardiness system the state runs from 4a to 9a, so a rose that thrives on the valley floor in Salt Lake City may struggle in a mountain town.

Hardy Shrub Roses

Most shrub roses are hardy and vigorous and need little care under severe conditions. Some tolerate severe winters, which is why they anchor a cold yard.

Knock Out and the Explorer series perform well without extra protection. Within the shrub class, the hybrid kordesii, hybrid rugosa and shrub divisions have the adapted cultivars.

Simplicity Roses

Simplicity roses are a series of shrub roses that repeat bloom through the whole growing season. They are also very pest and disease resistant, which saves you from a lot of fussing in summer.

They suit a front-yard hedge or a foundation planting where you want color without a spray schedule.

Meidiland Roses

The Meidiland series is described as very useful in the landscape, and that fits how people use it: as a mass planting or a low screen rather than a single showpiece.

Treat it as a shrub rose and plant it where it has room to spread.

Large-Flowered Repeat-Blooming Climbers

Climbing hybrid teas and climbing grandifloras are generally not recommended, because most bloom only on the previous year’s growth. A hard winter can take that wood and the flowers with it.

Large-flowered climbers that repeat bloom flower on the current year’s growth, so a cold winter costs you less. Lady Banks is winter hardy, but it is not a repeat-blooming large-flowered climber.

Hybrid Teas and Grandifloras

The hybrid tea is a well-loved garden rose, and it earns its place with its form and fragrance. It is also the type that needs extra winter protection in cold winters, grandifloras included.

Grow them if you enjoy the ritual of covering and uncovering the plants. Otherwise, lean on the shrub types above.

Alpine and Nootka Roses

Alpine and Nootka roses do better in the warmer areas of the state and have survived on protected planting sites. A sheltered spot near a wall in a milder valley improves their odds.

They are a poor bet on exposed high ground.

How to Choose a Rose for a Utah Garden

Start with the problem your yard poses, whether that is a bitter winter, a disease-prone summer or simply a lack of time. Each situation points to a type that has a record of handling it.

Match the rose to the harshest thing your spot throws at it, then pick the color and form you like.

Floribundas, a cross between a hybrid tea and a polyantha, typically repeat bloom each season. They suit a bed where you want steady color, though they share the hybrid teas’ need for winter care.

Which Roses Suit Different Parts of Utah

Winters differ a great deal between the valley floors, the mountain towns and the far south, and that changes how much cold your rose must survive.

• Salt Lake Valley: This is a mild valley by Utah standards, so more types are possible here, including hybrid teas if you are willing to protect them.
• Park City and the mountain towns: Higher ground is colder than the valley, so hardy shrub roses and the Explorer series are the sensible choice. Skip anything tender.
• St. George and Washington County: Southern Utah is warmer, which is where Alpine and Nootka roses have a real chance, ideally on a protected site.

If you live between these places, choose for the colder one and treat any warm spot in your yard as a bonus.

Rose Buying Mistakes to Avoid in Utah

Tender Roses Left Unprotected

A hybrid tea or grandiflora planted like a shrub rose and left bare through winter often loses its canes, and with them a season of flowers.

If you buy one, plan to put protection on in November and take it off gradually in April, once the danger of hard frost has passed.

Ignoring Disease Resistance

A rose chosen only for its flower can end up needing regular attention through the summer, especially if it proves susceptible to disease.

Read the tag for pest and disease resistance, and look to series such as Simplicity that are described that way.

Choosing Grafted Over Own-Root

Where winter can kill a graft, a grafted rose may come back as the rootstock instead of the variety you paid for.

Look for bare-root plants on their own roots, graded Number 1. On their own roots, whatever regrows after a hard winter is the rose you bought.

Where to Get Rose Advice in Utah

Local growers know which roses cope with your elevation and neighborhood. Helpful local advice is within easy reach.

• Utah State University Extension publishes plant advice for the state, and its pages on shrubs and vines are a good first read before you shop.
• Your county extension office can speak to conditions in your own valley or town, so call in late winter before you order plants.

Common Questions

When Should You Prune Roses in Utah?

Repeat-blooming roses such as hybrid teas, floribundas and modern shrub roses are pruned in April, and it can also be done in May. Once-blooming roses, including old garden roses, ramblers and many climbers, flower on last year’s wood. Prune them right after they bloom, never in early spring.

When Can You Plant Bare-Root Roses in Utah?

April and May are the months, in early spring, as soon as the ground can be worked and while the plants are still dormant. Potted roses can go in later.

When Should You Feed Roses in Utah?

Feed from May through July, and April and August also work. Feed regularly through the growing season with an all-purpose fertilizer, then stop after mid-August so late, soft growth does not form before frost.