Rose Gardening

Love them or hate them, roses are a key flower in many gardens, and come in such a wide range of varieties and colours, from the most simple rose with just a single ring of petals to the most elaborate muti-coloured multi petalled blloms, that every gardener will consider growing them at some stage. But roses do have a bit of a reputation for being challenging to grow well.

The first choice (after colour and type) you need to make when planting roses is between bare-root and container-grown roses. Bare-root roses are sold in the winter and the early spring, and are to be planted after the frosts have finished. Container grown roses are already more established, and come with the roots already growing in the soil in the container.

For your roses to succeed you need healthy soil, with plenty of sunlight and good drainage.

Remove any damaged roots and leaves on your new roses before planting, and if you are using bare-rooted roses the roots should be soaked in water for a few hours or overnight before planting out. Likewise the soil should be very well watered both before and after planting your roses. Plant the roses in plenty of compost - they like nutrient rich soil, and then water further each day for the first week or two while the rose becomes established.

Roses do like lots of fertiliser throughout the growing season (don't go mad though - read the instructions!) and also plenty of water.

The other important characteristic of roses is that they need pruning and dead-heading to control growth, make them more healthy, and to increase the flowering season - many roses will be in bloom for a large part of the season if these are performed regularly.

Roses can be reasonably easily grown from cuttings when you prune the plants - we used rose prunings stuck into mole tunnels to control moles (yes, it works, they don't like the thorns, but it didn't do much for the people playing barefoot in that part of the garden) and found that many of the cuttings grew. Simply take a 20 centimetre length of stem, trim off all the leaves from the lower half, and leave a couple of buds on the upper part, and stick it into good soil.