Roses

The rose is still the most popular and successful flower in the British Isles, no other gives so much colour, fragrance and pleasure over so many months of the year. Roses also have the sunniest disposition, they respond beautifully to the right treatment, but even when neglected a little they'll still give it their best shot and produce flowers better than many other shrubs.

The floribunda and hybrid tea varieties are the most popular; both slowly developed to perfection by breeders. The hybrid tea rose is a classically beautiful bloom, and the floribunda sprawls with great flowering freedom, in lush clusters for long periods of time.

Not forgetting the ramblers and climbing varieties though, or the miniatures and shrubs, each with a wonderful individual charm; it's no surprise that the rose was recently voted the nation's favourite flower, probably for about the fourth century running!

Roses really thrive in clay soil, quite heavy and well-drained; they love a nice open position that gets a decent amount of sun, but with protection from draughts and chilly winds. Actually, as long as the soil has enough 'body' to give them the nourishment they need, roses will grow in most soils given the chance. It's easy to improve the quality and structure of light soils by digging in well-decayed manure, compost, or leaf-mould before planting. The food already present in these should also be topped up with a good fertiliser.

Roses will only establish quickly when well-planted - as with all shrubs; it has to be at the right time in the right weather.

The season for rose planting is late October until the middle of March. Suitable weather is pretty much anything but frost and the period after heavy rain where the soil has become completely soaked and sticks to your hands and boots.

If you're planting standard and bush roses in the same bed, put their supporting stakes in at the same time to avoid damaging the roots. Make sure the planting hole is big enough for all the roots to settle in comfortably at their full spread.

Be guided by the soil mark on the stems as to planting depth, this is where they were planted in the nursery. Having lowered the plant into its new home, fill in around the roots with good-quality top soil, and work it in amongst them gently with your fingers and also by gently raising and lowering the stem. Fill in with some more soil, and lightly tread all around the stem to firm it up.

It's the little details that count with rose-growing. Poor staking can cause some real damage and you might even lose the whole tree with an established rose, so obviously it's best to make sure you do it properly in the first place.

Tree ties can be bought, but home-made ones fashioned out of twine or sacking are just as good really. To get a good, firm tie wrap the sacking around the stem a couple of times; then wind it round the stake and tree and back again so you end up behind the stake. Secure it with a bit of twine or really tough string. Then make another tie about halfway up the stem.

With proper looking-after, a standard rose will survive even the worst winter winds -these gales not only damage the top growth if trees are badly tied, the rocking really messes the roots up and can stop them developing for months.

The planting distance varies depending on the type of rose; hybrid tea and floribunda have to be far enough apart to get a good amount of light and air, but not so far apart that you lose that lovely massed blooms effect.

Eighteen inches apart is about right for all but the very strongest growers.

Four times this space will be needed for standard roses, climbers and ramblers need a distance of about ten feet.

Once everything's pruned and neat, it's a good idea to mulch all around the trees or bushes as soon as the soil perks up in the spring sun. Any and all of the usual mulching suspects; compost, manure, etc, will do and it's particularly beneficial if the soil's a bit on the light side.

Be sensible, make sure the soil is moist before mulching and draw it back frequently to see if it needs watering. Mulching does slow down the drying-out process of the soil but doesn't replace the need for watering by any means...

Pruning Roses

The damage a pair of badly-wielded secateurs can do is quite astonishing, so before you go lopping anything off, have a good think about what it is you are actually trying to achieve. Basically, you prune to give the plant a shape, to let in a little more vital light and air, to reduce growths so the blooms are fewer but of better quality, and to get rid of any dead or dying bits.

Most people prune floribunda and hybrid tea in March, others prefer to prune in winter; admittedly this gives earlier growth but there's always the risk of a late frost sneaking up on you.

Another choice you have to make is whether to prune lightly or hard. Light pruning gives you quite a large bush with small blooms, whereas hard-pruning gives you fewer flowers, but they're better formed.

Established roses and newly-planted ones need different treatment; the growths on the newly-planted hybrid tea rose should be cut back to 3-4 buds ideally, and the floribunda to 8-9 buds.

Best to do it in late March or April as new growth is less likely to be attacked by frost. Get rid of dead or dying wood, obviously. Always prune to an outward-facing bud, or a side-facing one if that's a no-go. Don't prune to an inward-facing bud whatever you do, as this will just 'fill in' the centre of the bush.

After planting a climbing rose, it should be cut to within a foot of the soil, with ramblers - about three to four inches.

Don't prune a climbing hybrid tea rose though, it's liable to protest and throw a fit by turning back into a bush, as is the floribunda.

Established roses should be pruned as and when they need it, bearing in mind whether it's strong and vigorous or a bit of a weak-grower.

The hybrid tea responds to hard cutting, back to 8-9 buds if it's a strong variety, and 3-4 if it isn't. It's worth remembering with floribundas to cut strong wood back to about 12-15 inches of the base, and weaker stuff to within 8-12 inches.

Hybrid teas need more pruning in the summer after the flowers have faded. Take them back to within 5-6 buds of the start of the current season's growth, you'll get some good-quality, strong-flowering shoots.

Rambler roses of need to be pruned as soon as they stop flowering. The previous season's shoots are cut all the way down to ground level; then the shoots made in the current season (which will flower next season) are tied in.

Ramblers which do not freely produce new growths from the base mustn't be cut back in this way, just a few of the growths should be cut back to a dormant bud about 18 inches above soil level. This encourages healthy new growths to form from the base, but still leaving enough old ones to cover the structure they're growing against.

Some ramblers, like the 'Albertine' and 'Alberic Barbier' are very strong, vigorous growers and only need a light pruning; in fact, all you really need to do is get rid of old or badly-placed shoots and remove diseased or dead wood.

Shrubs roses need hardly anything in the way of pruning apart from a quick trim here and there to keep their shape, and the removal of dead wood.

Weak and unwanted shoots should be snipped off as low down on the stem as you can, and the suckers should too, as they can be a real nuisance to many rose varieties. Snip these off or pull them out at their source, which will be either below soil level or low down on the stem.

Mature Roses

Now that you've planted your well-chosen roses and got them nice and cosy, a little routine TLC is all that's needed for fine flowers for many years to come.

Pests

Unfortunately roses attract a whole host of nasties, the Aphid being the most common. They're usually at their most troublesome in March or April. The leaf hopper, frog hopper (also known as cuckoo spit), caterpillar, thrips, capsid, saw fly and Red Spider (in hot, dry summers) will also do their best to destroy your blooms, so give them a regular spray, every fortnight.

Fertiliser

Roses need plenty of good food, give them base dressing early in the year and make sure they're well-fed in the summer when they're flowering. Before they start growing in the spring, work in a good fertiliser at 4 oz per square yard. This is most often done in March or April, but some gardeners feel that earlier dressing gives the buds a head start, and so work in the fertiliser in late autumn or even winter.

A couple of top dressings can be given in the summer, and a mulch of grass cuttings or even used tea-bags helps keep soil nice and moist and discourages weeds.

If your roses are staked, it's an obvious but often overlooked precaution to check the ties over occasionally, wear and tear could easily damage the stems.

Disease

Three common diseases liable to cripple the rose are Black Spot, Rust, and Powdery Mildew. Black Spot is the worst by far as a really bad case can completely wipe out your bushes. The first indication are tiny black spots on the leaves, which might fall prematurely. The stems are also infected, and a nasty attack will cause them to die back and kill the entire bush.

Black Spot is a fungus, it over-winters on the bush and on fallen leaves, but usually springs up again around the middle of June.

Funnily enough, the pollution in city air stops the fungus spreading and they're more likely to get it in country areas.

Protect by spraying around the end of May and repeat every fortnight until the end of September for complete protection.

Rust is pretty self-explanatory, it is seen as brownish, rusty pustules on the leaves, but regular spraying will prevent it.

Powdery Mildew shows up as a white, fungal covering on leaves and stems, and can be spotted on many other garden plants too.

It usually makes an appearance around the same time as Black Spot-in June or July, and thrives in dry, stagnant air. The spraying advised for Black Spot should do it, but if the disease is very bad, something with a little more sulphur may be needed.