Classically beautiful Roses (Rosa) enhance pretty much any style and size of garden with their stunning blooms, year after year.

Roses are available in an abundance of different types from climbers and ramblers to patio roses, from shrub roses to ground cover roses, and from standards to bush roses. Many are fragrant, some have fruits (hips), and some types flower in one flush of blooms while others flower all summer long.

Roses flower abundantly from early Summer to late Autumn/early Winter in an array of beautiful soft or vibrant colours including pastel shades of pink, peach, cream or white, or brighter shades of yellow, gold, orange, crimson, red and even purple.

Blessed with a range of poignant names, roses make ideal long-lasting gifts, and with such a wide variety available there is definitely a rose (or 2 or 3 or more!) for every garden.

Caring for Roses

Roses grow best in moisture-retentive, fertile, well-drained soils in a sunny position. They benefit from an annual mulch (of manure or bark) and being hungry plants, benefit from feeding (with rose fertiliser or general-purpose feed) twice a year – once in March/April before flowering and again in mid-summer to prolong flowering after the first flush. As with all pots in containers, any roses in pots should be fed more regularly – once every few weeks.

Unless you’re growing the roses for their decorative hips, deadhead the fading flowers.

Once established, plants in the ground should need watering only in the heat of summer, and like many other shrubs it’s better to water them thoroughly once a week to encourage deeper rooting, rather than little and often. Focus the water on the base of the plant, rather than the leaves and flowers, to maximise the use of the water and to deter fungal infections.

In the first few years after planting, water more regularly until the plant is well established. Similarly, for roses in containers, water as often as needed, ensuring that the compost doesn’t dry out but also avoiding waterlogging.

Pruning Roses

The ideal time to prune roses is January or February when the plant is still dormant. Pruning encourages fresh new growth and an abundance of flowers for the following season.

• Cut out all dead and diseased stems as well as those that cross.

• Aim for well-spaced stems to allow the air to flow freely.

• Cuts should be no more than 5mm above a bud and should slope downwards away from it so that water does not collect on the bud.

• On roses other than climbers or ramblers try and create a rounded shape.

• Cut suckers (rogue stems that grow from the rootstock below where the rose was grafted) right back to the roots from which they grow.

• It’s very hard to over prune an established rose but be more cautious if they’ve only recently been planted.
   

Our Favourites

At Clifton Nurseries we stock the David Austin range of roses – an award-winning range of repeat flowering roses with beautiful fragrant blooms. Our stock changes all the time but we do have a few that we just can’t resist, so we try to ensure that they’re always in stock!

Rosa Charles Darwin – Popular shrub rose with spreading growth. Fragrant yellow full flowers, tending towards a mustard colour. Repeat flowering. Approx 110cm high x 140cm wide.

Rosa Gabriel Oak – Stunning vigorous shrub rose. Deep pink flowers with numerous petals and a rich fruity fragrance. Repeat flowering. Approx 125cm high x 125cm wide.

Rosa Elizabeth – Majestic shrub rose with beautiful pale pink rosette flowers which fade to blush white. Repeat flowering with a sweet, fresh fragrance. Approx 140cm x 140cm high.

Rosa The Generous Gardener – Elegant climbing rose with pale pink deeply scented flowers. Repeat flowering. Up to 4.5m high.

Rosa The Pilgrim – Climbing rose with particularly elegant many-petalled flowers opening into large rosettes in an attractive shade of yellow paling towards the edges. Repeat flowering with a fragrance of tea and myrrh. Up to 3.75m high.