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 this is Ferndinand Pichard in front of my trellis with a star jasmine that died over the winter. It has a lovely strong old rose smell. Unfortunately it's an old breed that is prone to black spot but the hundreds of flowers make up for it every year. I ignore the black spot and it doesn't seem to do much to stop the prolific flowering.

I have just found this thread and wanted to share. I have a bed of David Austin roses that is the best thing in my garden- if I ignore the black spot. My favourite is Gertrude Jekyll for the shape of the flowers and fragrance. It’s in the middle of the picture if it attaches. I have never sent a picture before so 🤞. Thanks for inspiring me with your roses.

This is in my back garden . The red is rose Tess of the Durbervilles and the pink is Zepherine Drouhin

Love this thread. We’ve got a tiny garden but love roses - have about 12 or 13. This is the latest purchase - A Whiter Shade of Pale which is a perfect pale pink.

When we bought this house I inherited a rose garden. And no amount of hard pruning, down to ground level made them a thing of beauty. I ripped them all out and hated roses for awhile. They were so so leggy and just very old.

however then I discovered climbers, and now have 4 David Austin ones trained over trellis and 2 shrubs in large pots. And it’s fair to say I’m fairly obsessed.

We've tried to plant mostly bee friendly Roses to try and attract more wildlife.
Although my favourite for scent is Desdemona, so lovely.

I always try to plant single flowers for bees too

Hello, another avid rose fan here! This is a few I cut during the week. They’re all David Austin, bar the darker yellow one, which was a random garden center purchase, and the pink on the right, which I reckon is at least 50 years old as it’s from my grandmother in laws garden! The remaining are: Queen of Sweden, The Lark Ascending, Roald Dahl, Charles Darwin (I think), and Imogen.

I was wondering which roses people would recommend for cutting? I know there’s a section on the DA website, but it doesn’t include Queen of Sweden, which I think hands down is the best for cutting out of what I have, so I’m interested to hear what everyone else’s favourites are!

This is my newest rose . Not a David Austin which is unusual for me . It's called For Your Eyes Only and I just couldn't resist.

Lovely roses @maisiedaisy64 and @Vicliz24
This thread needs more photos so here are Buff Beauty and A whiter Shade of pale from my garden.

I'm loving all the gorgeous roses in this thread!

We started our current 0.5 acre garden as a blank slate in 2018. Apart from huge oak and beech trees, lots of laurels, a rather stunning mature acer, a huge pink rhododendron and one - unidentified - rambling rose there was nothing.

Although the house was a project, we like establishing the garden as quickly as possible so there's somewhere pleasant to sit outside as an escape from the DIY - so one of the first things we did was lay out some rose beds. We'd brought a few roses in pots from our last house - that was conveniently fairly close to the David Austin nursery 🙂 - so had a head start in that respect. Since then we've gradually added more (mostly David Austins, although one or two others have crept in!) and now have over 60 roses.

Favourites include Ancient Mariner, Morning Mist, Fighting Temeraire, Emily Bronte, Lady of Shalott, American Pillar and Hebe's Lip (we had a favourite cat named Hebe).

Here's a few pics....

And some more!

Beautiful @LibertyLily

Just lovely @LibertyLily.
I’m very envious. Our garden is tiny, 5m by 8m but we’ve squeezed in 18 varieties though some are still in pots on the patio. I’m always wondering how w could fit more in.

This is a DA rose that I bought 20 years ago. It’s on its last legs now I think but it’s so gorgeous I want to get something similar. It fades to pale pinky peach and the scent is amazing. Of course I’ve completely forgotten the name.

@BestIsWest is it possibly a Buscobel?

You've all got me outside snapping roses now . So left to right. Summer Song . Summer Song and Falstaff. St Swithin .

No I'm telling fibs , the right is Sceptered Isle . St Swithin to follow .

This is Souvenir de Dr garman ( L ) and St Swithin (R)

@maisiedaisy64 it does look like Boscobel, I’d wondered that too but the DA website says Boscobel was introduced in 2012 and I’ve had it much longer. But I think it would be the closest replacement.

Lovely roses @Vicliz24. We’ve just acquired one in that rich deep purple, gorgeous.

Ooh lovely thread. I love roses and am trying to persuade DH to let me have more…

We have two unidentified pink (but different) roses which were here when we moved in and are thriving now, which is wonderful.

Three years ago we put in a Lady of Shallott, a Falstaff and a Queen of Sweden. Queen of Sweden has done best and is just heavenly. Scent like sweet rose bubble bath! The Falstaff had an unfortunate start with one side getting damaged by a swinging bin lid, but is better this year. The Lady of Shallott was ravaged by sawfly each year and was a sad and weakly specimen. I worked really hard to remove the damaged parts and this year there is a fabulous new stem so I’m hopeful, although today I noticed the tell-tale sawfly scars on it 😭 Can’t see any caterpillars though so hopefully they’re killing something else 😡

What a lovely thread.
I adore roses. I fell into this by accident, mainly as they seem to be the only plant that are happy in our garden!
I drove onto our driveway the other day and said that the roses really lift my spirits when I see them in full bloom. My son said he had read that people often find a certain type of flower that becomes their favourite and whenever and wherever they see them, they instantly feel happier. It makes sense because I often find myself looking into other peoples gardens at their roses!
I have absolutely no idea what im doing with my roses. I think I prune them at the wrong time of year, judging by this thread! I didn't put any manure in when they were planted and need to learn what mulching is.
Im actually hoping to go to David Austin tomorrow, im sure I can fit another plant in somewhere!

Do you have any tips for cutting the roses? I'm torn between liking the flowers on the plant in the garden and wanting the fresh cut flowers in the house? Will it encourage more growth?

Vanessa Bell and Roald Dahl, snipped a couple off for a very small vase.