FEBRUARY 2026

This month I want to focus on roses with five reasons you should grow them and five steps to successfully grow them.

5 REASONS WHY

Versatility: There are roses for a wide variety of places in the garden. They enjoy hot and dry conditions, but will cope with colder more wintry climates too. There are large sprawling ramblers, which will comfortably cover walls, sheds and climb into trees. The more sedate climbing roses can be pruned and shaped into structured forms, and combined with other climbing plants. Numerous different shrub roses will readily grow with other shrubs and perennial plants. Many roses will grow in containers allowing them to be cultivated in spaces without obvious planting areas.

Scent: Roses are famous for their scent, and of course they don’t have just one scent; they range between fruity, tea, musk, myrrh and many others. Each rose variety can have many different notes like a wine or a perfume, and different strengths of aroma. Scent in a garden is important in laying down memory and conveying a familiarity that adds an extra dimension, and so when choosing roses the scent is an important factor to consider.

Colour: Rose flowers come in multiple shades and almost every colour, blue being the notable exception. Colour often has a strong emotional hold on us influencing how we experience a space, reds and oranges giving cheer for example or perhaps the calming whites/pale purples.

The foliage can range from greys to maroon with greens in-between. The rose hips act as points of yellow, orange, red or green through the winter. Roses contribute many colours to the garden over multiple seasons making them valuable additions. 

Year-long interest: We get used to the garden-scape changing from season to season but for shrubs and climbers that have a permanent space it can be useful for them to have impact throughout the year. This can be especially important in a smaller garden. From intricate latticeworks in winter to buds, flowers and hips roses can take a place at any stage in the garden. 

Multiple uses: In addition to being valuable and versatile plants in the garden roses are also useful in other ways. They are a mainstay of the cut-flower industry and most will readily produce stems for cutting. Rose hips can be turned into jellies and used as a fabric dye. Rose flowers for scents and flavourings in teas, chocolates, creams and perfumes.

5 WAYS HOW

Planting: Strong and healthy roses start at the planting stage. Make sure no roses have been grown in your chosen space previously as this can impede the rose growth. Clear any weeds or other plants to roughly a 50cm diameter  and then ensure the planting hole is wide enough for the roots when they are spread out, and deep enough so that the union between the roots and the stem is 5cm below the soil surface; this prevents suckers from the rootstock growing and also allows the top growth to begin to form roots, further strengthening the rose. Water well after planting to settle the soil around the roots.

Pruning: Winter/early spring pruning is important for all roses to keep them healthy and promote longevity. Pruning should be carried out from the middle/end February until the middle/end March so that should there be any sharp late frosts you will be left with plenty of living material to cut back to. 

When pruning remove first any material that is dead, diseased or damaged then remove a number of older thicker stems that have become unproductive; removing these will encourage new stems and shoots to grow. Finally if the plant is looking congested then this out the top growth as this should airflow through the plants in summer preventing disease build-up. 

Feeding: To thrive roses need nitrogen for strong stem and leaf growth, and potassium for flowers. Phosphorus helps the plant grow strong roots. Rose were traditionally mulched with manure , which is still a good option, but a mixed base fertiliser can also be used. Apply a dressing around the base of the plants in March as the spring growth begins, and then again after the first flowers in mid-summer. 

Deadheading: Some roses will flower only once, but many repeat flower. For those that repeat it is important to regularly remove the old flowers to encourage the plant to keep producing blooms throughout the summer and into autumn. For roses that only flower once do not deadhead these as they will likely produce large rose hips that will continue their interest into winter.

Mix with other plants: Roses have often been planted together in blocks, but by intermixing with other plants it can help to give a garden scheme a more varied texture. Plants such as Salvias, Thyme and Geranium can help to bridge the flowering gap in roses and act as a good way to showcase the rose plants. Mixed planting also helps create a healthier planting and rooting environment than a purely rose monoculture.

Roses have enduring popularity in gardens and with good reason. There is a place for a rose in every garden, and they will reward you for a relatively small amount of care.