Roses are the garden plant that everyone loves and spends their time trying to get the best from them! I’m no different, I have had a love affair with them for over 40yrs now, growing up in the gardens of Mottisfont certainly installs that love into you, just though their complete magic
Roses aren’t hard to grow at all and to help you prepare for the rose season ahead, I have gathered together some of my blogs I have done in the past, to provide you with the help you will need for getting the best from your roses this year and next. This information, I hope will be of great help to all levels of gardeners from first time growers to professional gardeners
There is nothing more romantic that a rose, hence its known as the flower of love! https://thomasdstone.blog/2020/02/14/roses-the-plant-of-love/
Ok most roses are no where near ready to start flowering and the current cold snap is certainly no like summer but here’s a blog that will help you work out what to do when it is! https://thomasdstone.blog/2018/06/27/dead-heading-and-summer-pruning-on-roses/
Ahh the dreaded suckers!!! How can you tell them apart from the rose you want? Well here’s all the information that you have ever wanted to know about rose stocks/suckers! https://thomasdstone.blog/2018/06/13/identifying-rose-stock/
Underplanting roses shouldn’t be separate thing, it should be the way we all grow roses, so many benefits of growing them within a garden this way. So many I did 2 blogs about it a few years ago! So here they are https://thomasdstone.blog/2018/03/08/under-planting-roses-part-1-the-reasoning-behind-it/. https://thomasdstone.blog/2018/03/14/underplanting-roses-part-2-a-few-idea/
Rose sawfly! A pest without limits!!! https://thomasdstone.blog/2017/07/26/the-curse-of-the-rose-sawfly/
Rose leaf diseases, I don’t need to say much more about them really do I! https://thomasdstone.blog/2017/04/20/treating-rose-leaf-diseases/
Of all the roses that need pruning, ramblers are seen to be the hardest to prune when nothing is closer to the truth!! https://thomasdstone.blog/2017/08/08/pruning-once-flowering-rambling-roses/
Well I hope some of the blogs above will help you get the best from your roses this summer! They are a easy plant to grow and will give you years of pleasure, yes they may need some help and attention but doesn’t anything in life that brings the greatest rewards?
I dig roses too, but I stick with the hybrid tea sorts that I learned with. They make the best stems for cutting anyway. My roses are all acquired from other gardens, so I hope to get at least one, and perhaps a few, of the ‘John F. Kennedy’ this winter.
Thanks Thomas. Great information.
I disagree though about whether roses are actually easy to grow. I find growing and maintaining healthy roses a real challenge. Certainly NOT a ‘plant it and forget it’ type of plant. Consider all the challenges growing roses in a cold climate can bring! We have all the same adverse situations of pests and fungus as you do, but on TOP of those we also have extreme and extended periods of cold weather and snow.
Even roses which are rated a 5/6 hardiness have a tough time occasionally – depends on the year. We’ve lost a few roses which were rated cold hardy but really would have performed beautifully in a zone 7.
Care of roses in a cold climate is another whole aspect of growing roses that too many never discuss. Too bad they don’t!