Oso Easy Italian Ice ®
With spring just around the corner, and many of us reserving our roses, I thought I’d share one I think deserves a place in your garden. Let me back up. I was recently asked to name a few “sustainable roses” that I would recommend growing here in the Carolinas. I could rattle off a laundry list of roses I would call sustainable, i.e. not relying on any of the “-cide” interventions to grow well. I mean, that’s what I’ve been banging on about for years–roses are not difficult to grow! The hard part was naming “just a few.”
One of the roses I felt sure should be included on a sustainable roses list was Oso Easy® Italian Ice® (CHEwnicebell). It’s not only super easy to grow, it’s perfectly sized for most gardens, blooms from spring to frost, and yes, has fragrance!
Mine was generously gifted to me by Proven Winners to try in our garden along with ‘At Last’. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to go nuts over this rose but then it started flowering….and flowering…and flowering, and oh how beautiful the flowers were.
The petals appeared to be painted with watercolors ranging in shades of lemon yellow, peach, pink and apricot giving a pleasant rainbow effect. I love roses with open blossoms and prominent stamens, much like you would see in Hybrid Musk roses, and so do the bees! They were frequent visitors to ‘Italian Ice’.
The fragrance is light and sweet. Leave the last of the summer blooms on the plant and they will be followed by large, round hips that persist well into winter. This photo was taken just yesterday so you can see they’re still on the plant!
Leaves are glossy and were completely clean all season. Jesse and I were so pleased with ‘Italian Ice’ we decided to pop it out of it’s summer container and place it in a permanent spot in the garden. I’m excited to see it bloom again this spring.
If you’re looking for ‘Italian Ice’ for your garden, they are available from White Flower Farm. If you try it, let me know what you think!
Thanks for sharing this Laurie – hope you guys are well! I’m going to have to find a way to add this rose – how would it look in a container based on its growth habit?
I think it would lovely in a container but you might need to prune it back hard in the spring. (Mine have a few longer canes much like you’d see in a DA rose.) 🙂
Thanks for sharing this, Laurie.
You have also inspired me to write a blog! I’ve just finished writing a book and need an outlet! And something to keep me busy until I can start gardening again.
Alison! I’m so pleased to hear you’ve started a blog, that’s wonderful! It’s such a great way to journal your garden and, of course, keeps us busy during the winter months. 😉
[biting nails whilst submitting essay to garden blog guru]
https://themindfulgardener.blog/
Hooray! Looks awesome, Alison! I know how much hard work goes into this kind of thing. I’m very happy for you! 🙂
PS I tried leaving you a comment but I kept getting an error message. I think this is my fault because I couldn’t remember how to login to my wordpress. Anyways, I loved the post about your Gran, that was so very sweet!
This is a beautiful rose! I just finished reading your blog on ‘Should I keep this rose?’ and I would really be interested in your top 15 roses you can’t live without and why. I’m in the north so I’m sure some wouldn’t work for me, but I just love reading about others ‘rose’ experiences and your blog.
Hi Nola! Although I’m living in the south currently, the first 5 or so years of this blog was written when we lived in the north east so the roses I have been discussing would definitely be relevant to you. As for recommendations, it’s too many to list, but I do talk about my favorites a lot in older posts. This post, HERE, where I discuss what some of my favorites were while we were gardening in the north east, and why. The comments section, in particular, might be of interest. Happy rose gardening!
I was wondering how it would grow in my climate, and you answered that for me, as I’m about 5 miles south of White Flower Farm. And, knowing it has their approval is an additional endorsement. I’ll visit them this spring and have a look. Many thanks!
hooray! 🙂 (you live in a lovely part of the country…my brother isn’t too far from you!)