Rosa Nozomi - miniature groundcover or short climbing rose

Rosa 'Nozomi' is an original and vigorous creeping variety, interesting for its trailing habit and almost prostrate growth that allows it to be used as ground cover. It can also be trained as a miniature climber, in a pot on the terrace. On a background of dark green, disease-resistant foliage, numerous small flowers in a delicate white to shell-pink bloom in summer. It is truly trailing, pretty, and compact, ideal for running between the stones of a rockery or on a rural slope.

'Nozomi' means "hope" in Japanese, but it is also the name of the breeder Onodera's niece, who created this variety in 1968. This creeping miniature rose is classified as a modern, landscape rose. It forms a dense bush 30 to 40 cm (12 to 16in) tall, spreading, trailing, or climbing over 1 m (3ft). It is floriferous and produces an abundance of small single flowers, measuring 2 to 3 cm (1in) in diameter, around a heart of golden-yellow stamens in June-July. In autumn, they give way to pretty little orange hips. Sometimes, a few flowers may bloom in September. Its deciduous, disease-resistant foliage is composed of tiny leaves of shiny coppery dark green that cover long thorny stems.

The 'Nozomi' rose adapts to all soils that are not too wet (even poor and dry) and all climates, which allows it to be grown from almost anywhere. It has long trailing branches that work well in a rockery or on a slope where it will cover the ground. It can also be planted in groups of 3, trained on small tripods. When planted en masse, it can border paths and highlight flower beds. It is possible, for example, to grow it with perennial geraniums (Geranium Blue Cloud, Anne Folkard, Nimbus, Orion), bellflowers (lactiflora, rapunculoides), catmints, snapdragons, foxgloves, or other Stachys. Left to grow freely, it will form a tapestry of finely cut, flowery, and cloudy foliage, with a very natural appearance in front of a mass of flowering bushes composed of abelias, Kolwitzia, mock oranges, elderberries, or shrubby wormwoods.