ROSE TYPES WHAT YOU’LL NEED THE EASY GUIDE TO Roses •Too Fork ls • Stakes, ties & supports • Spade • General purpose compost • Secateurs For more information: • Tough gardening gloves www.rhs.org.uk/advice GROWING • Rose fertiliser www.rosesuk.com GrowingROSES There are thousands of different ● Shrub/English roses – bushy, HORTICULTURAL TRADES ASSOCIATION roses available and, increasingly, low-maintenance roses: plant modern varieties are being bred singly or in groups in borders THE HORTICULTURAL TRADES ASSOCIATION IS RUN for ease of growth, free flowering together with other shrubs BY THE GARDEN INDUSTRY FOR THE GARDEN INDUSTRY Roses and pest and disease resistance. and herbaceous perennials. It isHTA dedicated to providing services, products, advice and information Decide which type of rose you want Many are good for hedging. to help support and promote the business activities of to grow from the list below, then ● Climbing/rambling roses – garden retailers, growers, landscapers, wholesalers, visit your garden centre or nursery good for covering walls, fences manufacturers and service providers in the UK. to see what is on sale. or growing over arches, pillars ● HTA Specialist Group – British Rose Growers Association visit www.rosesuk.com Alternatively, if you wish to buy a and pergolas, and some will ● Tel: 0118 930 3132 or visit www.the-hta.org.uk specific variety, visit: www.rose grow into hedges or trees: they ● PlantforLife – visit www.plantforlife.info locator.com or www.rosesuk.com have long shoots producing for information on Find That Rose. large clusters of flowers. ● Hybrid Tea and Floribunda ● Groundcover roses – ideal for roses – average 75–120cm high, ground cover, banks or growing plant singly or in groups, can be in accessible areas, these low- ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY underplanted with ground cover, growing and spreading roses IS THE UK’S LEADING GARDENING CHARITY perennial or bedding plants. are also suitable for pots. Membership benefits include: ● Patio and miniature roses – ● Standard roses – tall-stemmed ● freeRHS entry with a guest to RHS Gardens Wisley, average 45cm high, ideal for low roses can be eye-catching centre- Rosemoor, Hyde Hall and Harlow Carr; hedging, containers or rockeries. pieces in borders or large pots. ● free entry to more than 140 recommended gardens; privileged entry and reduced-rate tickets for RHS flower shows; ● free gardening advice service; GOOD COMPANIONS ● and free monthly edition of The Garden magazine. The following plants are ideal companions for roses: alchemillas, ● Call 0845 130 4646 or visit www.rhs.org.uk alliums,Com anaphalis, anemones, p ani campanulas, ons clematis, fennel, foxgloves, hardy geraniums, heathers, herbs, hollyhocks, lamiums, lavenders, lilies, marigolds, pulmonarias, tulips, verbascums Photography: Tim Sandall/The Garden, David Austen Roses Copyright: All information contained within the Easy Guide series of leaflets remains the copyright of the HTA and cannot be reproduced in written or electronic form without permission EG01/0110 Made from at least 50% recycled paper; the remainder is from certified forests ROSES PRUNING Roses look wonderful, smell terrific, are easy to grow and hardy, which Pruning promotes healthy flowers meansRoses they can be left outdoors and flower year after year. Give them andPruning should be undertaken in early lots to eat and drink, a bit of love and appreciation and you’ve cracked spring. Wearing a tough pair of it! There are hundreds of cultivars and colours to choose from, so the gardening gloves, first cut out any first step is deciding where to plant them in your garden. diseased, damaged, dead, weak or crossing stems using sharp CHOOSING A SITE secateurs. Then, using secateurs or a pruning saw, make sloping Roses will grow in almost any type of well-drained, reasonably fertile cuts, just above an outward- soil.Posit Choose a position that ioninggets full sun, or at least half the day in the facing bud, as follows: sun, and which is sheltered from strong winds but away from trees or large shrubs. If you are replacing old roses with new, remove as much ESTABLISHED BUSH ROSES: On of the old soil as possible and replace with soil that has not grown roses Hybrid tea (large-flowered) roses, before. (The old soil will grow any other plants.) shorten last year’s strong shoots LOOKING AFTER YOUR ROSES to four to six buds and weaker PLANTING shoots to two to three buds. With FEEDING: A well-fed rose is a healthy rose, so regularly feed your plants: Floribunda (cluster-flowered) ● ClayMaint soil: add a rose fertiliserenance in March (after pruning) and once the PREPARATION & PLANTING TIME: 30 MINS roses shorten strong shoots back first flush of flowers is over (usually late-June/July). Planting to leave 30cm growth and less ● Sandy or chalky soil: Give roses a small handful of rose fertiliser each Container-grown roses can be plan - vigorous ones more severely. Trim month from March to the end of July. ted year round into ordinary soil, patio or miniature roses back to ● Loamy soil: roses will benefit from three or four feeds between March provided it is not excessively dry, 10cm of the previous season’s and the end of July. waterlogged or frozen. Plant growth. Trim all bush roses back ● Containers: use a slow-release fertiliser, and liquid feed from mid-July bare-root roses (not in pots) only after they finish flowering in until September. Apply a granular fertiliser each spring and replace between October and early April. November to stop wind-rock. the top few inches of compost every other year with fresh. Dig a hole large enough to cover BARE ROOT BUSH ROSES: When all the roots – about a spade’s planting bare-root bush roses WATERING: Although roses will MAINTENANCE: Snip off the dead depth – and loosen the soil around between October and March give tolerate a dry soil, they thrive in a heads of finished flowers weekly the hole with a fork. Improve the plants an additional pruning (even moist, well-drained soil. In dry to promote regrowth. backfill soil by mixing in organic though they look pruned). Cut weather, provide an occasional ● A shoot with light green leaves, matter (garden compost, manure back to around 8cm from ground good soaking – watering little and green stems and a few thorns or proprietary rose and shrub level, which looks savage, but it often is not advisable. Watering in coming from the base of the compost) for good root growth. will encourage the roots to grow the morning or keeping leaves dry plant could be a sucker. Do not Place the rose in the centre of and produce a stronger plant in thrown up from the trained stems. helps reduce incidence of disease. cut it off – pull it off as deep as the hole, carefully teasing out the the long term. Use the strongest verticals arising you can (with good gloves). If it roots of container plants and ensur- CLIMBING/RAMBLING ROSES: from the base and/or the middle PESTS & DISEASES: Much has is coming from underground, dig ing the roots of bare-root plants are Tie in strong sideshoots to their of the plant to train along higher been written on keeping roses the soil away and pull it off. well spread out. Lay a small cane supports, then reduce their length wires to create another tier if free from pests and diseases, but ● Mulch around the base of rose across the planting hole to ensure by a third, shortening any required. Prune the remaining with good husbandry (proper plants in spring with garden that the graft union (swelling) is at, sideshoots to two or three buds. vertical stems to 1cm from the feeding and watering) and choos- compost, leaf mould or well rot- or slightly below, soil level. If no If growing climbing roses horizontal stem during ing healthy rose cultivars (seek ted manure to keep moisture in graft union is visible, plant at the against a wall or fence, train them September/October. In this way advice from rose special- the ground, smother weeds and same level as it was in the pot. in September/October to grow you will avoid an unsightly tall ists/garden centre/nursery staff), improve the soil. Half fill the hole with soil, gently horizontally (fan out). Stretch plant with a few flowers at the top they can be avoided. If diseases ● Rake up any dead leaves around tread it in and add a little water. wires out along the wall/fence and nothing below. appear, spray with a proprietary your rose in winter to prevent Replace the rest of the soil, tread it attached to vine eyes/nails, and True ramblers flower only fungicide and prune out any badly infection from disease. down firmly, then water. bend the rose over, attaching it to once each season and affected stems. If pests (aphids) By following these guidelines, Roses like to have space and air, the wire with string or raffia. The immediately after flowering cut are troublesome, try wiping them you can have roses that flower so correct spacing will help ensure wires should be spaced at 60cm out flowered stems to ground off or use a proprietary brand of for up to five months of the year optimum growth. Check the label intervals starting above soil level. level, tying in new ones. insecticide. (Ask garden centre/ with the minimum of attention. or catalogue for recommendations. After a time, vertical stems will be ● See also www.rhs.org.uk/advice nursery staff for advice.) Happy rose growing!.