ROSES ARE READY

Forget that bunch of flowers, buy your Valentine a rose bush, says Monty Don – it’s the perfect time to plant one

Commercial cut roses are loaded with romantic good intentions, but they lack the charm of almost any rose growing in the ground. However, much as I adore my roses in their full summer display in the garden, I also love going out early on a June morning, when the dew is still fresh, and cutting roses to bring indoors to make up into posies – from a single exquisite bloom in a small vase to an opulent display filled with countless fabulous petals.

The truth is that roses are the most beautiful of garden flowers, and getting superb cut flowers from the plants is perfectly possible. You can have your dozen red roses growing in the garden on one bush alone, just not on 14 February. Mid-february is the perfect time, though, to plant a rose, and I think a rose bush that will last for a generation – and costing just £20 or so – is a much better present than a bunch of stiff, lifeless cut roses, completely out of season and flown halfway across the world, for twice the price.

Bare-root roses tend to be cheaper, healthier and available across a much wider selection of varieties, but they do need planting straight away. When yours arrives, unwrap it and place in a bucket of water for half an hour or so. If you can’t plant it in its permanent site on the same day, then either put it temporarily in a pot or make a hole in a spare piece of ground, covering the roots in soil. It will be fine like that for weeks until you’re ready to plant it properly. A rose in a pot can be set aside until you’re ready to plant in the ground, but water thoroughly at least weekly.

Choose your planting site carefully, taking into account the size your rose will be when it reaches maturity, which can take three to five years. The majority of roses like full sunshine, although most will flower well if they get a few hours of sun. The ideal soil is rich but well-drained – roses thrive best on clay soils but any ground with plenty of organic material added will do – and mulching annually will substantially improve any soil.

Dig a hole that’s wide rather than deep and remove every scrap of weed, because

once a perennial weed such as couch grass, bindweed or ground elder gets in among the roots, you’ll never get rid of it. There’s no need to add compost to the planting hole if you have good topsoil – a thick mulch on the soil surface is much more beneficial. But I do advise using mycorrhizal fungi (available as granules from garden centres or online) to aid fast root development.

The vast majority of rose plants you can buy have been grafted. When planting them, I always ensure that the join, or union, between the rootstock and the top part is fully buried, and just the branches are sticking out of the ground. This will secure it firmly and reduce the growth of suckers – shoots from the rootstock – which take nutrients away from the plant. Water the rose well and then mulch very generously with well-rotted compost, to feed the roots, suppress weeds and retain moisture.

Monty at work with his roses. Inset from top: Munstead Wood and LD Braithwaite