Roses are amongst the most popular flowers to grow. Providing you find the right spot for them, it is relatively easy to do so. Roses come in a huge range of varieties and can provide intense beauty and lovely scents in any garden.
Growing Roses:
Roses need good light levels, preferably full sun, in order to thrive. They will also suffer if they become too crowded, so ensure that they are well spaced and have room to breathe. They do not like extremely acid or alkaline soil conditions, preferring soils that are neutral or slightly acid. They like a soil that is rich in organic matter and high in nutrients. With the right soil additives and with a little amendment of the natural balance, roses can be grown in almost every garden, either as free-standing bushes or as climbers and ramblers up a wall, arbour, pillar or fence. It is possible to grow roses in flower beds or in pots on your patio.
You can buy roses as bare-root plants during the dormant period in the winter, or you can buy container-grown roses at any time of year. Roses can also be propagated from cuttings taken from an existing bush. Growing roses from seed is tricky and not usually done by home gardeners as the germination is very patchy even when you do everything perfectly.
When planting out roses in the garden, make sure you give the roots plenty of space and incorporate a good quantity of organic matter into the hole. Plant to the correct depth and mulch around the rose bush well with an organic mulch such as leaf mould.
Roses will appreciate a good feed with a general purpose organic fertiliser on a regular basis as they can be hungry plants. Be sure to water sufficiently in periods of dry weather, especially while the plant is becoming established. If the leaves on the plant begin to yellow this is usually an indication of an iron or manganese deficiency. Pale patches on leaves' centres is usually a lack of magnesium.
The nutritional needs of roses means that legumes, with nitrogen fixing properties, are excellent companions. Roses are also helped by chives, garlic and other alliums, and by marigolds.
Roses should be pruned to keep them in good shape and to encourage flowering, and flowers should be dead-headed to ensure a good length of flowering with profuse blooms all summer and autumn.
Why grow roses in the garden?
Roses make a grand addition to any garden, whether you have a garden of wild and bountiful profusion or perfect, ordered haven you will find a rose to suit. Some have large blooms, others small delicate ones, some climb, others have a bushy habit, some are known for their colouration, others for their scent. There is a good reason why so many people say that the rose in their favourite flower.