Have you noticed the roses this year? Cycling around London, I’d estimate that about half of the front gardens have at least one rose, and this June they seem to be particularly gorgeous.
Never having spent much time looking after roses this abundance was a mystery to me — surely it can’t be that every Londoner decided to become an expert pruner?
I asked landscape and garden designer Jo Thompson, a nine-time Chelsea medallist and rose aficionado, who assured me I was not hallucinating blooms.
“A long winter and cold spring like we’ve just had is the perfect combination for showstopping roses,” she said.
“Often roses are only watered when they first get planted so have to send down their roots for water.” This means they are able to thrive, even in dry periods.
“Roses are the perfect plant for our climate, they can survive the cold and wet as well as the lack of surface water after initial planting,” Thompson added.
While they can be planted almost anywhere, providing they get a few hours of sunlight each day, there are a few things you can do to give your roses the best chance.
Traditionally, roses have been mulched with well rotted manure, but other mulches such as compost and woodchip work just as well at increasing the water-retention of the soil.
Pot-grown roses can be planted any time of year, so long as the ground is not totally dry and they are well watered if planted in summer.
When it comes to pruning, everyone gets a bit nervous, but don’t be. Roses are tough and respond well to having some growth removed.
For shrub roses (the bushy upright ones) that have been growing for a few years, you can simply reduce the size of the plant by half. It’s best to do this in late winter.
If you are yet to grow a rose in your garden, Thompson says there are plenty of cultivars that suit the environment and are disease resistant, with good flowers and tolerant of a little inner-city shade
They include Rosa “Olivia Rose Austin”, which is pink with large, dense flowers and dark green foliage.
If you are short of space and need a rose to grow against a wall or fence, try Rosa “Ghislaine de Féligonde” which produces peachy coloured flowers that fade to pink and white as they age.
