A green thumb has traditionally been the sign of a gardener, but these days, a more apt marker might be fatigue. Just reading each season’s long list of garden chores can exhaust an aspiring gardener.

     These lists published in newspapers and magazines can make it seem as if gardeners never get a rest. In the fall, bulbs need planting, perennials dividing and lawns replanting. In the meantime, fallen leaves are piling up and seeds are waiting to be planted for the winter garden.

     In the winter, the lists tell us, dormant spraying is critical. We also have to prune our fruit trees and protect tender plants from frost. Spring brings no respite, as we head back outdoors to dig amendments into the soil, nurture new plants and tend to the vegetable garden. Soon summer brings work on the drip system (again) and an orgy of blooms that require constant deadheading. 

     At a recent Napa County Master Gardeners seminar, rose expert Jan Tomalsoff of Healdsburg’s Russian River Rose Company suggested staging a sit-down in the rose garden, an idea that never appears on published to-do lists. In her experience, rose gardens do not require unending attention in summer. In fact, she recommended doing nothing to roses during the month of July. That’s right: nothing.

     Give the roses a rest, and yourself, too. Don’t feed them, and don’t deadhead. Keep watering but otherwise take a vacation from the rose bed. She even suggested that we leave town.

    In August, prepare the garden for a new season of bloom. Deadhead relentlessly, and clean up thoroughly. Fertilize as you would in the spring. Work the fertilizer into the soil and pull out any weeds. Water roses deeply. Overhead watering is especially beneficial as it cleans and refreshes the foliage. But do it before 10 a.m. so leaves have plenty of time to dry. Then sit back and enjoy a flush of new blooms in September and October.

     While on a vacation from your own rose garden, you can visit others. Seeing a rose in full bloom beats any picture in a catalogue. You’ll realize that ‘Altissimo’ is not only deep red and as tall as its name implies, but that it also works well as a pillar. ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison,’ named for Empress Josephine’s Parisian home, is a fragrant and famous pale pink rose on many gardener’s want list even though it is known for refusing to open in wet weather. But you may learn, as you explore others’ gardens, that it can also be finicky in sunny weather if the nights are cool.  

     In other gardens, you may discover that many David Austin roses grow very tall. Without summer pruning, some of them soar to the height of small climbers. ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ can get very lanky, its scented blooms too high to appreciate. She needs to be summer pruned or treated as a climber. ‘Pat Austin,’ named for David Austin’s sister, has large double blooms of copper lined with yellow. But unless you see her growing, you won’t know that the blooms droop so much that their beauty cannot be fully appreciated. However, they make such a spectacular flower arrangement that ‘Pat Austin’ is worth growing even if the flowers don’t show well on the bush.

     This summer, take a break from your rose garden. Check out the roses elsewhere. Make lists of the ones you lust after. Do some field research in addition to your catalogue dreaming. But remember, time is short. The bare-root season will be here before you know it, and some garden writer somewhere is already working on a to-do list for next season.