Shrub rose Pink Freedom

* Common name: Shrub rose Pink Freedom

* Botanical name: Rosa ‘WEKpumpahor’

* What it is: Pink Freedom is a new disease-resistant shrub rose with large, double-pink flowers.

The flowers have good fragrance,  yellow stamens, and they keep coming throughout the season, peaking in June.

This newcomer from Weeks Roses performed well enough in national trials that it won 2022 awards from both of the U.S. rose-awards programs – American Rose Selections honors in four climate regions and a 2022 Master Rose award in the American Rose Trials for Sustainability program.

* Size: Plants grow about five tall and three feet wide.

* Where to use: Full sun is best, but shrub-type roses like Pink Freedom also flower well in part-day sun. Pink Freedom is tough enough and colorful enough to serve multiple roles in the landscape, including as foundation shrubs in southern and western exposures, as border shrubs, as hedge plants, or massed on a sunny bank.

* Care: Cut back to knee high in March before new growth begins. Keep plants neat and blooming best by snipping off flowers after they brown (“deadheading”), but this isn’t essential for good performance.

Fertilize with a granular fertilizer formulated for roses in early spring. For maximum flowering, scatter additional fertilizer in June and August.

No spraying needed. Pink Freedom is very disease-resistant.

Water weekly during hot, dry spells, wetting the ground, not over the leaves.

* Great partner: Purple salvia, betony ‘Hummelo,’ lavender, salvia, and catmint are good perennial partners, and little bluestem and blue-tinted forms of switchgrass are ornamental grasses that make good color and texture pairings. Boxwoods and hollies are good evergreen partners. Angelonia, blue salvia, and ageratum are good annual-flower partners.