Rose people can you give me some suggestions?

[GirlsInGreen]

I've just planted a beautiful rose 'Desdemona' in a huge terracotta pot. She's in a good south/west position, so should get plenty of sun.

But she looks a little bare - can I plant something in the pot? A geranium or such? Or should I let her find her feet? Any tips as I haven't a clue about roses at!

*all^

I don’t grow my roses in pots but I underplant absolutely everything!

My roses are under planted with Campanula Portenschlagiana and English lavender.
Not that you could fit a lavender in that pot with it.

But Campanula Portenschlagiana you could.

Small bedding like sweet alyssum or marigolds would be nice too

Nooo, definitely not. Desdemona will soon fill that pot - roses in containers need every bit of nutrients that they can get, they are very hungry and don’t need any competition.
By year three there shouldn’t be any room left, Desdemona is a beautiful, healthy rose so just feed her, enjoy her and be patient :)

Thank you for the advice! I keep popping out to her - I'm terrified in case I'm the end of her. The pot is about 15 inches across- should I have gotten a larger size do you think?

Also if we have a good downpour, can I leave off watering the next day? The weather is contrary at the moment (West Midlands).

I've put her in John Innes 3 x compost x rotted manure and fungi root powder -will I feed her anything else? Do you feed during growing season?

Thank you for the lovely ideas!

I have several roses in pots, although I don’t deliberately underplant them, self sown seedings of past annuals often grow there in the summer.
The important thing is to water, deadhead and feed ( once a week )the plant. That way you’ll get blooms all summer. Stop feedIng at the end of the summer and start again in April.

Nemesia are very pretty, and not too big...

Thank you - I think I'm about to become a rose lover!

That's a lovely pot and a lovely rose.

I underplant everything, too. I think the conventional wisdom is not to
underplant roses in pots so they don't have to compete for nutrients, but my two roses in pots are sharing the space with viola labradorica (I didn't plant it, it's essentially a weed) and pinks. For now, they all look happy.

I have Roald Dahl in a big pot, and he is under planted with lobelia. Every autumn he gets a big top dressing of manure, and he’s very happy and floriferous.

I would definitely underplant. At least until your rose actually fills the pot as you say it looks bare. How about lobelia? Or any other trailing annual you like the look of in the garden centre. That way it's not a permanent plant so you can change your mind about underlanting as the rose grows and the roots on annuals won't go very deep or cause much competition for the rose

the rose will soon fill up.
but I have pearl hyacinths in my shrub pots, they bring a nice bit of colour between trimming early in the year and first flower.

Just reading the David Austin rose care guide. It says ‘be careful not to over feed’. I think I may have been guilty of this. It says feed in early spring before leaves open then after first flush of flowers in July. Definitely plenty of water though. If I have over fed my roses are looking pretty good on it though. Your rose looks great in that pot, it will need plenty of root space.

I feed granule food March/April and July.
Much better and easier than doing liquid feed ever week, cheaper too.

I give a special rose feed (granules) in march, may, july
it depends a bit on the type of rose. mine flowers from may-october therefore needs more than a rose that only flowers once or twice a year.

I think the warning against overfeeding is a good one. Of course, individual roses will have different requirements, but overfeeding plus weak pruning can produce lots of spindly, floppy growth.