Perfect ROSES

There’s room for the nation’s favourite in every garden, big or small, and now’s a great time to plant them

- CHRIS MORLEY

The bare-root rose season runs until March and, by planting now, your rose should produce a lovely display of blooms all summer long. Here are some ideas to fill every part of your garden.

Border beauties

Roses add a lush beauty to borders, but don’t like to be crowded. Allow one metre’s distance from other plants – or half a metre if planted as a group of roses.

Look for disease-resistant varieties, like the Rose of the Year 2021, ‘Belle de Jour’. This vanilla-scented floribunda produces dreamy, butter-yellow blooms with hints of peach, from July to September.

Or try a traditional favourite like ‘William Lobb’ (grown since the mid-19th century), which looks stunning trained over a hazel dome. It has a heady, old-rose fragrance, with mossy, citrus-scented buds that open to silken magenta flowers and age to parma violet.