Diarmuid Gavin: How to grow a garden of roses

Because they, like other deciduous shrubs, can be planted bare root from November to March while they are still asleep. This is best done on a dry day — waterlogged or frozen ground is not a good start for your rose.

The Rose Valley in Bulgaria is probably the largest rose garden in the world. It’s filled with Rosa damascena, which is harvested annually to produce rose oil for the perfume industry. It takes several thousand tonnes of rose petals to produce one kilo of this liquid gold and, every May and June, the valley is filled with the glorious scent of these shrubs in full blossom.

The valley has rich but free-draining alluvial soil and is sheltered from winds by the mountains. High rainfall in May and June contributes to near perfect conditions to produce a profusion of roses every year. So when choosing a spot for your rose, think lots of sunshine, good air flow, shelter and really good soil.

Average-sized gardens and smaller plots require plants that will earn their bit of space. Roses deserve their position with their beautiful blossoms and delicious scents. And if you choose repeat-flowering roses, they will deliver even more of that. The first flush will come around June and then the second at the end of the summer or beginning of autumn. The second flush is not always as prolific as the first but you can help things along by regular deadheading and keeping your roses well fed and watered during the summer.

Many of the most beautiful roses are repeat flowering, for example ‘Darcey Bussell’, named after the well-known ballerina. It is a gorgeous shrub rose with rich crimson-pink petals and fruity scent. My old favourite ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ also performs twice very reliably. She has intensely rich pink flowers with an equally strong fragrance — the distilled essence of an old rose fragrance. This variety can be grown as a shrub or small climber.

Gone are the days when we only planted a single lollipop-shaped standard rose in the middle of the front garden. Roses are now recognised for their great versatility, whether they are climbing walls, scrambling over and disguising eyesores, adorning elegant pots or even used as groundcover. Groundcover roses tend to spread widely, have masses of flowers throughout the season and, as such, are very useful for steep banks and other tricky spots.

The Flower Carpet roses are disease resistant and very low maintenance. They come in white, red, yellow or pink and, once established, are drought tolerant. They repeat flower pretty much continuously through the summer and into autumn. Forming compact bushes, they don’t even require pruning but you can chop them back in spring.

Rambling roses often just bloom once but there are exceptions such as ‘Super Fairy’. These medium-pink flowers are borne in big clusters throughout the summer and, with their lax growth, can be trained well over pergolas, arches, pillars and obelisks.

Plant of the week

Crocus It’s always lovely to see the yellow and purple spring crocus emerging from the soil, and a spot of warm weather persuades them to open up their blossoms to the sunshine. This is why it’s best to plant them in sunshine to get the full effect — under deciduous trees is fine as the trees are still bare. Often paired with daffodils, they naturalise quickly, creating delightful spring tapestries of white, yellow, purple and blue. Plant bulbs in autumn — throw handfuls onto the ground and just plant where they land for a more natural effect. If you need to transplant in spring, do so while they are still in the green.

Reader Q&A

I was given some hyacinths for Christmas but they are dying now – should I get them planted outdoors straightaway? Debbie

Leave them outdoors in their pots once they have finished flowering so they can absorb whatever sunlight is around through their leaves and replenish the bulbs. There’s no great hurry to get them in the ground but it is well worth doing so as they will come back — not as early as Christmas but later in spring 2025 when you can enjoy that delicious perfume once more.

Submit your gardening questions to Diarmuid via his Instagram @diarmuidgavin using the hashtag #weekendgarden