After three decades of growing roses, G. Michael “Mike” Shoup has gotten to know his flowers on a personal level.
Old garden roses, says the founder of the Antique Rose Emporium, have personalities. “They almost have a presence or a moxie to dominate the garden they reside in. They rule the court, and all the plants in that garden kind of bow down to the rose.”
Shoup wants gardeners to understand the roles hardy roses can fill in the landscape.
“I want to get people away from thinking about planting roses as soldiers to get these perfect (cut) flowers from them,” he said by telephone this week from his rose nursery in Independence. “They're especially easy if you choose these older varieties.”
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