Nearly Wild Rose

You may have seen pink-flowering, wild roses growing along rural fence lines and in natural areas. Rose lovers know that wild roses have a truly hardy nature and feature delightfully fragrant flowers that develop into stunning rose hips in autumn. But... they can be a little rangy and freeform for use in modern landscapes.

So let’s look at one of the best cultivated varieties that have had a little help from horticulturalists. Nearly Wild Rose (Rosa x ‘Nearly Wild’) gives you the chance to have a rose variety that looks a little like a "species rose" but still has the stellar qualities of a developed one.

Nearly Wild Rose starts blooming in May and continues right into fall. The flower production is phenomenal. Each plant produces masses of single pink blooms that resemble wild roses. You’ll love the apple-like fragrance!

With a nice rounded form and densely held branches, Nearly Wild Roses stay compact and elegant. There is nothing “rangy” about these beautiful plants. They’ll work in any garden style.

It’s a floribunda, so the flowers are produced in clusters on new growth at the tips of the branches. Each 3-inch, single bloom features delightfully pink, 5-petaled blossoms with yellow stamens and a delicious, fresh fragrance.

Glossy dark green foliage completes the picture, a perfect accent to the stunning blossoms. But the vibrant pink, cup-shaped flowers and buds are held so profusely, you may be hard pressed to see any of the rich green foliage between all the blooms.

With a dense, shrub-like nature, Nearly Wild Rose is quite hardy overall. These rugged little plants are easy enough for even beginning gardeners. Its long-blooming nature, disease resistance and versatility make it an outstanding choice for anything from a walkway hedge to a container planting on your front porch.

Nearly Wild Rose combines the best of both worlds. It gives you a "wild" look with a cultivated nature. Plant a Nearly Wild Rose and you'll reap the benefits of a hardy, long-producing rose with a very natural appearance. Just plant it and then let it grow and bloom it’s head off for you with only two quick trims a year.

This flower making machine keeps pumping out flowers. If you leave the spent blooms on the shrub, you will be rewarded with a red-orange rose hip display that is quite attractive during the winter months.

Butterflies adore single blooms because they are much easier to land on. You’ll see so many visit your garden when you include Nearly Wild Roses as great nectar source.

Order them for your yard this year, and get ready for flowers all season long!

How to Use Nearly Wild Rose in the Landscape

Nearly Wild Roses are excellent for hedge plants for hot, sunny and exposed areas with good air circulation. Once they are established, this variety will need little additional water in most areas and demands little of your time. Even untrimmed, they feature a formal appearance because of the dense branching and even, rounded habit.

If your house faces south, try Nearly Wild Roses as a very modern foundation planting. Use a pair flanking either side of your front door. Or, go big with a long flowering hedge lining your walkway.

Give 3 feet between the sidewalk and the center of the plants to avoid snagging your guests clothes. Mulch underneath for a polished presentation.

Nearly Wild Rose has a smaller size, fragrance and outstanding color show which also makes them perfect to include in a patio area planting. Don’t forget to use them as “Thrillers” in large containers, as well as in the ground. They mix beautifully with other perennials and annuals.

Try them in your cutting gardens and garden borders. Repeat their use in all your planting beds to help create a unified, designer look. It couldn’t be any easier!

Nearly Wild makes a great facer shrub with tremendous flower power. Plant them on the sunny side of larger shrubs and trees. They are a wonderful, low contrast to evergreens and shrubs that tend to be a bit “leggy” with sparsely held foliage near the ground.

Roses have thorns, and these pretty shrubs can make a “friendly fence” to keep the neighbor’s dogs and kids corralled. It branches quite densely, which makes it a small and impenetrable barrier plant to direct traffic in your landscape.

No one ever said a hedge had to be planted in a straight line either! Why not use Nearly Wild Roses in a meandering row that follows the contours of your landscape? They’ll put on quite a show, but everyone will leave it alone.

For a fantastic low hedge, plant two feet apart on center. You’ll measure from the center of one to the center of the next.

Commercial landscapers love to use this plant in mass plantings, and so should you in your home garden. Use a zig-zagging staggered planting pattern to create a larger fill-planting for a wide open, sunny spot. Mulch between the plants and keep new plantings weeded until the Nearly Wild Roses grow together.

As you can imagine, when you are able to purchase the largest container size we have in stock, you’ll enjoy a big head start. Go bigger whenever you can, and you’ll know that your plants have received a long time of expert care from our experienced plantsmen.

#ProPlantTips for Care

Nearly Wild Rose is adaptable to most types of soils, as long as they are well-drained. If you see puddles long after a rain, bring in additional soil and heap it into a mound 18 - 24 inches high, and plant in that mound. Or, create a raised planting bed to improved drainage.

Be sure to baby new Rose plants the first season. You’ll get the best results if you provide a moderate amount of water on a regular basis. However, Nearly Wild is tough enough to tolerate drought quite well once its root system is well established in your native soil. Go ahead and enjoy your vacation!

Prune this rose in early spring just as it starts to show signs of new growth. Cut all of the stems way down to 6-8 inches or so to eliminate much of the old stems. Removing the dense and thorny old wood will allow fresh new growth to develop from the base.

You’ll love how many new flowers are produced on new foliage. Refresh your Nearly Wild Rose with yearly hard pruning for the most floriferous display.

After the first, heavy round of blooms, you may want to deadhead the spent blooms either by shearing the plants for a more formal look, or you can simply prune back the flower stems just below the old blooms. The pruning will encourage the next round of blooms to quickly push and before you know it, it will be blooming again. You’ll quickly enjoy the next flush of beautiful flowers!

As the season wears on, leave some of the spent blooms on the shrub. They will develop into an attractive display of rose hips for winter. Use these in your annual holiday décor!

Use a fertilizer designed for Roses according to the directions. Please keep nitrogen-heavy lawn fertilizers away from Rose bushes, or you’ll wind up encouraging green foliage and see few blooms.

Mulch the soil and try to water only at the root level. You’ll want to keep the leaves dry as much as you can. A full sun position, where they receive lots of the drying power of the morning sun will help keep the foliage clean and nice.

Admittedly, we’re partial to this special Rose variety, but we’re sure you’ll adore the Nearly Wild Rose in your landscape too. Order from our expert growers today!