Rose Appreciation Thread

[Furries]

Following on from some chat on another thread, I said I’d start one on here re roses. Any hints, tips and lots of photos welcome!

Disclaimer: I am not a competent gardener, but I do love my roses. I will start with a few separate posts to allow for relevant photos.

To start, I love the David Austin website. You can search by colour, size, aspect etc. And there is plenty of helpful information re planting, pruning, watering, feeding etc. However, you also NEED to request their brochure. It is a thing of beauty and I look forward to receiving it every year - so many gorgeous photos to pour over!

I had never had or planted roses before. I wanted to make roses the focal point for my front garden. Partly for ease - rather than having a garden with a variety of plants that needed different care at different times, this means that they all get the same care at the same time.

With regards to planting/care:

A couple of weeks before planting, I made sure that I dug plenty of well-rotted manure into the beds. When planting, I sprinkled Mycorrhizal Fungi into the hole and over the rootball.

I prune, feed and mulch around the first half of March. It can be done earlier, but I like to try and wait as long as possible to avoid frosts. By the time you come to doing this most leaves should already be gone, but if there are any left then these should be removed.

I then feed and mulch again after they’ve had their first flush of blooms - this is usually around the beginning of July for me.

Other than that, it’s keeping on top of deadheading. That can be quite a lot for me - I’ve got 18 shrubs and 5 standards.

If anyone is looking for roses, David Austin have 15% off until 18 April - the code is PILGRIM.

Will add some photos in further posts. Looking forward to seeing lots of rose love on here!

So, I planted mine in June 2020. The shrubs are Gabriel Oak (deep pink) and the standards are Olivia Rose Austin (pale pink). I was really impressed with the packaging and the condition of the plants when they arrived.

Exactly one year later - this is how they looked as they started their first bloom of the year.

Then, in July 2021, disaster struck!

We had some really strong winds which totally flattened the shrub roses. They basically looked like they had a centre-parting. And a couple of days later we had a 30-minute downpour unlike anything I’ve ever seen. So the roses were half submerged where they’d been bent over.

I had to cut them right back to remove all of the damaged/broken stems. They bounced back and last summer were looking great again. I’m so looking forward to everything coming back into bloom again this year.

Those are beautiful!

A few photos of the roses as they have just opened and then as they’ve been fully open for a bit.

Final post! My next project is to successfully grow a climber for my new rose arch in the back garden (excuse the mess in the background!). I’ve chosen The Generous Gardener from David Austin. Fingers crossed that they do well.

How do you keep such a lovely shape on your standards? Mine always end up less dense and a bit more straggly! I never quite get it right with what to prune and what to leave once it's all bare.

@Furries thanks so much for starting this thread!!

Your photos are so beautiful. I have much to learn. I need all the help with this. Have finally got gardening gloves robust enough to withstand the thorns, so that is a start. What feed do you use for them?

I had lots of problems with leaf spot on one of mine last year and none of the treatments I tried seemed to work.

Those are beautiful flowers! @Furries Garden looks so peaceful too 😍

These are mine. The red ones are the ones that got leaf spot. Definitely need some work! I have pruned them all back recently so hoping that helps for healthy flowering this year. Also have one in a pot only planted last year, and a "ground rose" that is a bit of an experiment.

Your garden is so beautiful OP!

This is such a lovely idea, that will be stunning.

That is so sad. I think I remember exactly the downpour you mean! It ruined all the roses and peonies. My neighbours had planned a street party and open gardens and open gardens but all of our gardens looked so sad, and the weather so miserable, that it was called off. 😩

Your garden and roses are sublime. I’ve just been given a Rose Alissar Princess of Phoenicia by DH as I was raving about it so much yet shipping costs to us were more than I liked…he’s a practical romantic bless him. I also got David Austen Worcestershire ground cover as was so impressed with the ground cover rose I got last year from them. I stare longingly at the Gabriel Oak in catalogue, so one day.

I bought a Thank You rose years ago and take cuttings every year to give as gifts as necessary.

Probably stupid question I know... 😳🫣 but how have you trained the roses up into tree shapes like that?

Honest answer - I’m not sure! Am definitely not as confident with what I’m doing re the standards. I just tend to hack (sorry, gently prune) them and hope for the best! Overall, I just try to keep it looking like a ball shape, but it really is more luck than judgement here.

For the first two years I used the David Austin granules for feeding. Last year, it was impossible to get hold of - everywhere was out of stock and I was going to end up missing the window if I waited for stock to return (would have been around a 2 month wait). I called the David Austin helpline (they’re always very helpful) and they recommended Top Rose - I got a large box of granules which is going to last me a while.

Thank you! Garden is pretty peaceful - apart from the occasional boy racer and the very vocal pheasants which are often on the green opposite.

Thank you 😍

There was an arch when I moved into the house. I planted what I thought were climbers, they were on the “reject” shelf at the garden centre. Turns out they were actually rambling rather than climbing roses, so they only flowered once a year.

The arch was completely destroyed during Storm Eunice last year, so am starting again from scratch with proper climbers. It’s a shame, as it did look lovely when in full bloom, but am optimistic for the new version!

Would love to see some photos. I’ve not attempted ground cover roses, would be interesting to see what they’re like. Are they easy to look after?

Definitely no skill from me! It’s how they come (standards are the “tree” version of various shrubs). They’re more expensive, because it takes time and effort to get them to that stage. But I really like them as it just adds some effective height difference and structure to an area.

https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/collections/standard-roses

Oh goodness, so much pretty stuff! I need to save up. 🤣

I had the "warm welcome" climbing rose around the door at my old house so have planted a couple here near a fence in the hope it creates a similar effect. It flowered non-stop for so long with deadheading and was such a wonderful colour. Only put these teo in last year so they weren't up to much but keeping my fingers crossed for this year. Your pergola is going to be stunning!

I’ll definitely add photos later in season. I found the ground cover rose I bought last year “Centre Stage” an absolute doddle, it spread quickly but not invasively and bloomed for months. I’ve bought 3 more since!