In recent years, the nation’s favourite flower was cruelly ignored by many garden designers, who thought that sleek and modern didn’t marry with blowsy blooms. As British gardens began to sport spiky succulents, grasses and tree ferns, roses were sidelined, and the demise of the traditional monoculture rose garden was complete.
This last casualty was, to a large degree, a relief: serried ranks of identical roses, their gawky stems surrounded by bare earth or dull, repetitive bedding, were never attractive. There are far nicer ways to grow roses, and many are particularly well suited to the smaller garden.
Thankfully, rose breeders are taking the needs of gardeners with smaller, urban gardens into account when they develop new varieties, so there is bound to be a perfect rose to make your heart sing. Repeat-flowering patio roses, small but floriferous shrubs, standards, miniatures and compact climbers are all perfect for small spaces.
There are some tips worth following to ensure success. While some varieties are tolerant of a degree of shade, most need reasonable light to do well. There are few sights as unappealing as a solitary, straggly rose reaching desperately for a glimmer of sunshine in a really shady spot.
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Do a bit of homework before you buy so that you choose the right rose for your site. Select a healthy specimen, enrich the soil with plenty of organic material before planting and get the rose into the ground as soon as possible after bringing it home.
Some of your new purchases might find a home in a pot. Roses work exceptionally well in containers, and I have several dotted around the garden. A couple are standards, but most are compact varieties with smallish flowers. The trick is always to use a pot at least one size bigger than you think you need, because the rose is a water-hungry plant.
When it comes to selecting the right rose for containers, Phillip Harkness, of Harkness Roses, favours shrubby, mound-forming roses rather than the traditional taller bush with flowers on the top of the plant. “One doesn’t want to be looking at too much stem. Because the eye level is raised once the rose is in a pot, the quality of the foliage becomes more and more significant, and a good shape makes all the difference.”
Carefully chosen climbing roses are another asset in the smaller garden. Given that these gardens have a high proportion of vertical surfaces to ground area, it makes sense to get the most out of them. Walls are the perfect backdrop for roses, with something to suit every situation, whether sunny or shady, tall or short, while arches, obelisks and pergolas can be strewn with luscious roses, providing valuable height and interest in the centre of the garden.
While they thrive when planted directly into the ground — never too close to the base of the wall or fence or else it will be too dry — climbers can also go in a large pot, provided they’re well fed. Michael Marriott, of David Austin Roses, suggests mixing some slow-release fertiliser into the compost before planting, adding more each spring.
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Harkness recommends adding a rose food to every other watering from early to mid-summer. “Roses can’t have too much and are fairly demanding. A bit like children,” he adds, hearing my own kids shrieking in the background.
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