Firstly enjoy your roses, warm days are the best to get up close and appreciate the wonderful perfume and beauty that many roses possess. It is a great time also to cut a few blooms for the house, with this in mind have a look at roses that are particularly good for cutting. Try to visit some of the great rose gardens to get inspired back home.

Continue dead heading spent blooms of repeat flowering varieties, this will speed up the production of the next flush of bloom by preventing hip formation. They can just be snapped off but it is better to prune down to just above the next good leaf joint using sharp secateurs.

 

Dead heading

Established once flowering shrubs can have some of the very oldest unproductive stems removed completely just after flowering, this will ensure any new growth will have time to grow and flower next year.

Feed your roses with a good rose fertiliser or fish blood and bone at the label rate after their first flowering. We have had great results using Afterplant which also contains benificial fungi and bacteria.

If buying roses in pots it is essential to keep a close eye on watering, they can need watering twice a day in very hot conditions, however they are best planted as soon as possible to ensure good establishment. The use of micorrhizal fungi such as Rootgrow will aid water uptake especially in light soils. Again keep watering even once planted during the first few years.