Felicia

Hybrid Musk roses weren’t exactly created for small gardens, but ‘Felicia’ is one of the most adaptable for this purpose. The semi-double, apricot-pink flowers fading to pale peach under intense sun, are extremely sweet-scented. Their light clusters decorate a narrow bush that is easy to keep pruned to a 4 to 5 foot height. The smooth, rigid canes are not heavily branched; they tend to lean out from the base rather like those of a stiff climber. Cutting the rose back will keep it shrubbier and better covered by the light green foliage, but it can be allowed to develop to pillar-rose height. It will eventually reach as much as 9 or 10 feet this way, but it must be either trained when the canes are still young enough to be flexible, or simply fanned out flat on a trellis. The natural growth habit of the rose is not ideal for a specimen plant, but it works very well in a bed of large perennials, especially some of the big blue salvias. Like others of its class, ‘Felicia’ is a tough and healthy rose with a great deal of shade tolerance. It differs in being a fairly constant bloomer and a good cut flower.