‘Rose Acquisition Syndrome’: When quantity overtakes quality, it’s time to make choices

For The Union-Tribune

“I give a rose three years to produce. If they give me only a few blooms a year, you have to ask if they’re worth the dirt they’re planted in.”

— Clair Martin

Good gardeners grow a diverse palette of plants to minimize disease and encourage beneficials. So, several years ago, when I had 75 roses growing in my garden, I promised myself I would stop at 100 roses to ensure that there would always be space for other plants. Very quickly, I reached my self-imposed number.

The problem is, I continue to want more roses. I suffer from Rose Acquisition Syndrome. I know this pleasurable and exhilarating “bug” is very contagious, as all the members in the San Diego Rose Society have it.

In fact, some of my rosarian friends with Rose Acquisition Syndrome have developed some interesting “fuzzy” math skills. They count their miniature and miniflora roses as half a rose, and when they tally up their roses, they count all roses of the same variety in their garden as one rose! This math dyslexia is one of the symptoms of this bug.

Throughout the year, I jot down the names of roses that I would love to grow in my garden. As the end of the year draws close and in anticipation of the new rose-growing year, I review my list and am faced with the same quandary. My garden is small, and my list of desired roses is long. What’s a rosarian to do?

The Rolling Stones have an answer to this perplexing annual dilemma. What starts out sounding like a negative — “You can’t always get what you want” — ends with the positive “you can get what you need.” I can work with this message!

If you can relate to this dilemma, you might be interested in the steps that I take to get the roses that I really “need.”

You can’t always get what you want

The first step is to figure out the realistic number of roses we can grow well in the garden with the amount of time we have at hand.

Only plant what you can take care of

“Rose Acquisition Syndrome” is not just a problem for rosarians who have small gardens. It can also be a problem for rosarians who have large gardens. Why is this? Some plants require more care than others. It is said that when you grow roses, you will never be bored, as there is always something to do in a rose garden!

The reward for all the dedication is that nothing beats a well-tended rose garden for beauty. On the other hand, a neglected rose garden can be pretty awful. So, be realistic. Only plant the number of roses you can take care of. Otherwise, gardening, which should feel like fun, will start to feel like it is a chore. Sometimes being realistic about how many roses we can manage will motivate us to finally dig out and replace the underperforming roses in our garden instead of just continuing to add more roses.

How long does it take to maintain a garden of 100 roses? A daily walk through my garden to deadhead, catch and cut out pests and disease, pull out a few weeds, and reward myself with cut blooms to bring inside takes me an hour a day. Pruning, planting and fertilizing do take much longer, but these are not frequent tasks.

Are you always working in your garden?

All gardeners know that our pruners and spades are never put down for long. A garden is a living project, and as we give our time and love to our roses and our gardens, our roses and gardens return joy and satisfaction to us.

Or do they? Are you always working in your yard? When was the last time you really enjoyed and appreciated your garden and took the expression, “Stop and smell the roses” to heart? If you never stop and experience calming moments of harmony, peace and gratitude in your garden, consider whether it is because you have too many plants that you are taking care of.

Is your garden overstuffed?

It is so tempting when we are out of space to plant roses too close together. And then, when we are out of sunny spots, we kid ourselves into believing that some roses will be okay growing in the shade or under trees. Fungal diseases and pests will be constant companions to roses that are planted in inappropriate locations or crammed tightly together.

You can get what you need

Life is short. We really ought to be able to have the roses we have our heart set on. Besides, once we have seen and “fallen” for a rose, it is extremely hard to ‘un-see’ and ‘un-need’ it. Trust me, I know this to be true! So how do we get the roses that we really need?

Here are the steps:

• Review and research each rose on the “must-have” list.

• Scratch off roses that are not disease resistant or suited to our growing zone.

• If the remaining number of roses still puts us over our quota, we need to move on to the next phase.

This is the close review of the roses we are presently growing. Are they, as Clair Martin III asks, “worth the dirt they’re planted in”?

Should it stay or should it go?

An annual evaluation and reckoning for each rose growing in the garden is a good practice. How did the rose perform? Should it hold on to its coveted space in the coming year or make way for a new rose? An honest evaluation can open space for new roses, so we aren’t tempted to ‘stuff’ them into inappropriate locations.

A book titled “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” has been widely popular. The method that author Marie Kondo uses to tidy up a home is very simple: If an item in your home does not “spark joy,” Kondo says it must be discarded, but in return, she promises that “your life will change dramatically” and “the effects are stupendous.”

In the garden, the performance of each rose matters. I can’t promise that swapping out a nonperforming rose for a super-bloomer will make a transformative change in your life, but it will make a stupendous difference in your garden.

Do you need to prune with your shovel?

To help make your decision easier, try this simple three-prong query:

• Start with an examination of conscience. Could the rose’s nonperformance be my fault? If the answer is yes, or maybe, give the rose a one-year reprieve and resolve to take better care of it.

• Did the rose “spark joy?” Did it give me enough blooms? If it didn’t, were the scant blooms “knock-out gorgeous”? If the answer to both questions is no, the rose HAS TO GO. A rose should never be dull!

• Was it more trouble than it was worth? The blooms on a rose that is a disease- or pest-magnet need to be “super joy-sparkers.” If they are not, there is no excuse, and the rose MUST GO. Get out the shovel!

Once we have weighed each of our roses on the ‘joy meter’ and made space in the garden by shovel pruning the roses that did not “spark joy,” we can go back to our whittled down must-have list and get at least some of those roses we really need.

But be wary, because a great challenge remains. “Rose Acquisition Syndrome” is a hard bug to combat because it is extremely enjoyable. Spontaneous, impulsive buys, another symptom of this interesting “bug,” can occur when we are at the nursery to purchase our roses or when we are ordering our roses online. This syndrome is probably not curable, but now you know how to manage it.

But I should give you advance notice that next month’s column will be a review of the beautiful, new rose releases of 2026.

Perwich is a member of the San Diego Rose Society, a Consulting Rosarian and a Master Gardener with UC Cooperative Extension. For more information and advice, visit rose-harmony.com.