Shrub
Rose
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flowers | Flowers in June | Flowers in July | Flowers in August | Flowers in September | ||||||||
| Plant | Plant in January | Plant in February | Plant in March | Plant in November | Plant in December | |||||||
| Prune | Prune in February | Prune in March | ||||||||||
| Looks good | Looks good in June | Looks good in July | Looks good in August | Looks good in September | Looks good in October |
Overview
Roses cover an enormous range, from compact patio types to sprawling ramblers, but most gardeners start with shrub roses, floribundas and hybrid teas. Modern English-style shrub roses such as 'Olivia Rose Austin' and 'The Generous Gardener' combine old-fashioned cupped flowers with repeat blooming and decent disease resistance. If you want hips for birds in winter, look at Rosa rugosa or Rosa glauca, whose single flowers are also loved by bees.
Where to grow rose
Pick an open, sunny spot with good air movement, which helps keep leaves dry and disease down. Roses are happy on heavy clay as long as it does not waterlog, and they mix beautifully with catmint and hardy geraniums at their feet to hide bare lower stems.
Planting
Bare-root roses are cheapest and establish fastest; plant them between November and March when the ground is not frozen. Soak the roots for an hour, dig a wide hole, set the graft union about 5 cm below the surface and backfill with soil mixed with garden compost. Avoid ground where roses have grown before, or replace the soil, as new plants often sulk there.
Care through the year
Spring
Mulch thickly with well-rotted manure in March and give a balanced rose fertiliser as the leaves open.
Summer
Water deeply in dry spells and deadhead repeat flowerers to keep buds coming; feed again after the first flush.
Autumn
Stop deadheading species and rugosa roses so hips can form, and clear fallen leaves showing black spot.
Winter
Shorten very tall stems by a third to reduce wind rock, then plant new bare-root roses.
Pruning
Prune most shrub roses in February or early March. Remove dead, damaged and crossing stems, then cut the rest back by a third to a half, just above an outward-facing bud. Hybrid teas take harder pruning to around 15–20 cm; ramblers are pruned after flowering instead, by removing a few of the oldest stems.
Propagation
Take hardwood cuttings about 20 cm long in autumn, insert them two-thirds deep in a sheltered trench and leave them for a year. Many modern varieties root well this way, though they grow on their own roots rather than a rootstock.
Common problems
Black spot, powdery mildew and rust are the common trio. Start with resistant varieties, good spacing and clearing infected leaves. Greenfly cluster on soft tips in spring; squash them or hose them off and let ladybirds and blue tits do the rest.
Guides to the problems most likely to affect rose:
Something else wrong? Diagnose it by symptom.
Month-by-month reminders
Jobs for this plant come round in January, February, March, November and December. Each month page lists everything else worth doing in the garden at the same time.
Related plants
Sources
Botanical names follow Kew's Plants of the World Online; growing attributes were checked against the references below. Text is our own. See our editorial policy.