The power of garden roses

Roses can endure cold, heat and drought. With a little TLC, a rose will stay in good condition for years. Every year, you will be rewarded with many months of fragrance and colour.

Settling

After a long period of heat with lots of sunshine and drought, roses are often the last flowers to still be in full bloom. In fact, roses can weather any conditions, as long as their feet are not wet for too long. They only need sufficient watering in the first period after planting. Watering just above the ground is preferable. Once settled, watering is no longer necessary, or only in prolonged periods of drought. Roses naturally root deeply.

Winter-hardy

Although roses themselves are hardy, the grafting point of grafted roses is sensitive to severe frosts. If winter temperatures risk falling below minus 10°C, applying a mound of compost or garden soil around the stem of shrub and climbing roses in November is advisable (this is called earthing). In spring, you can remove the mound again. In stem roses, the grafting site (the thickened part at the top of the stem where branching starts) should preferably be wrapped when temperatures drop below minus 5°C during the day (for example, with straw or pine branches and jute).

Pruning and fertilising

Most roses should be pruned to keep them in good condition. Shrub roses, for example, should be pruned back to 5 – 7 centimetres above the ground every spring. After pruning, fertilise the roses with organic manure. If you deadhead wilted flowers, the rose puts its energy into new buds. All that flowering is hard work for your rose, so fertilise again in June and July. Do not fertilise after August, so your rose will go into winter well hardened.

Interesting fact

The world’s oldest rose is probably in Hildesheim, Germany, growing up against the cathedral. In World War II, the cathedral was destroyed by a fire, but the rose survived the blaze. This rose is estimated to be an impressive 700 years old!