Lift your garden with the wonderful rose - handy tips and an expert's top ten
'Of all flowers, methinks a rose is best', said William Shakespeare - and who are we to argue?
There really is nothing quite like the national flower of England to lift any garden, room, or allotment. So after stowing away the Christmas decorations for another year, why not have a go at growing and maintaining this most rewarding of flowers yourself?
With a myriad of rose varieties to choose from, and ease of maintenance with a few handy tips, the options are truly endless.
Experts at Cowell's Garden Centre have compiled a handy checklist to get you started:
A Rose for Every Garden Setting: Choosing the right rose for your garden can be a hugely enjoyable task, with options ranging from hybrid tea roses, climbing and rambling roses, to shrub and patio roses. Kickstart your journey by deciding on your preferred colour, then give some serious thought to the planting location. Delve into the details of different varieties until you discover the perfect match, considering factors such as fragrance.
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Ideal Planting Time for Roses: Between November and February is the ideal time to plant your rose. Planting during this period allows for the development of a robust root system, preparing the roses for optimal growth in the ensuing spring and summer. Ensure the planting area is enriched with well-rotted organic matter, and follow the instructions for planting each rose.
Using Roses Inside Your Home: While there's no denying roses exude charm in gardens, they are also used in a variety of beverages and cosmetics. So why not explore this versatility by crafting rose water, tonic, tea, lip balm, or cream? The petals can be harnessed for creating natural cosmetics and refreshing drinks. Let your imagination run wild!
Harvesting Roses for Vases: Roses take centre stage in cutting gardens thanks to their fragrance and beauty, often gracing bouquets and special gifts. Cultivating your own roses opens up the opportunity to harvest them for vases in your home or to share with friends and family. Choose the rose colour that resonates most with you or makes that perfect gift.
Ten best roses to grow in your garden
Garden designer and RHS Chelsea winner Jo Thompson shared with The English Garden some of the best roses to grow, whether you want a luxuriant shrub rose, rambler or climber.
Rosa ‘Félicité Perpetue
“This rose is a powder puff personified. Her frilly cream flowers appear in hundreds of delicious clusters all the way along her stretchy, flexible arms”.
Adélaïde d’Orléans
“If you have a pergola or an arch or anything you want your rose to tumble through, Miss Adelaide is your girl. She’s regal, elegant immaculately presented, approachable and confidently relaxed: everything you want from a rambling scrambling rose.”
Meg
“This rose is habit is poetic, all floppy and laid-back romantic. The same goes for her colour; one day pink the next day anything. I first saw her on a wall at Sissinghurst.“
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Ispahan
“Slightly dishevelled, on close examination the blooms are asking to be tidied up but en masse they produce a perfumed pink ‘pow’. When in full bloom, the bush is absolutely smothered with flowers.”
The Lark Ascending
“The name brings to mind exquisite harmony and the flowers do just the same. Apart from the how-is-that possible translucence and deceptive fragility of these wonderful flowers, I can never get over the light that they bring into the garden. The flowers are peach, pink, coral, yellow, orange, lemon and apricot.”
Tuscany Superb
“This rose is relaxed in the sense that her flowers are semi-double, so not perfectly formed, just loose and laidback and seemingly enjoying of life”.
Rosa banksiae lutea
“Tiny, sweet, joyful clusters of buttery, pale sulphur, primrose flowers. They explode into bloom around late April and early May, but the sheer earliness of the buds, which start tempting you in March and make you think that the best bit of the year is nearly here, is seductive".
Macmillan Nurse
“Sometimes white, sometimes peachy, sometimes just a little bit of blush, this rose flowers all summer long. She flowers in the light and in the shade, and in my garden she’ll even flower 10 foot high up in a birch tree that she somehow climbed".
Munstead Wood
“I can’t begin to explain the sheer joy these flowers give when the great big fat buds explode into bloom. The heavy blooms can weigh down the stems but the sumptuousness of her colours earns her a place".
Ghislaine de Féligonde
“Pretty, elegant multicoloured, rambling, nearly evergreen, not too spiky, pink and peach and apricot and amber and white. Fragrant and ever-changing – hypnotism in a flower”.
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