Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
in the garden with DIARMUID GAVIN
Start now to ensure you get a good crop of this classic beauty by summer
At a horticultural trade fair in Germany the other week one of the star attractions was a new rose variety designed to amaze.
It wasn’t that the blossoms were any more spectacular than any of the beautiful roses we are used to – the innovation in this case was that the stem was as straight as a poker and as tall as I am.
I watched as hordes gathered around it, photographed it and shared in on social media.
But for me it was a pointless oddity. I associate roses with beautiful old-fashioned gardens, with summertime, fragrance, pastel colours, Gertrude Jekyll and the Queen Mum. I don’t need my roses messed with.
Next week, imports of “perfect” red roses reach their peak on Valentine’s Day.
The British climate is unsuited to growing roses in winter so these will be imported in their millions from equatorial countries such as Kenya, Ecuador, India and Colombia where they can grow all year round.
But you can’t beat a garden rose for fragrance or character.
Britain has an unequalled tradition of rose growing with world-famous nurseries producing the finest varieties.
February is a good time to plant bare-root roses so you can be gathering beautiful bouquets from your own plot in the summer.
However, don’t plant in frozen or waterlogged soil, so if the cold spell continues, hold
off planting until March.
Add mycorrhizal fungi, such as Rootgrow, into the planting hole which will help establish friendly relations between the roots and soil.
One of the most intoxicating roses is Mme Isaac Pereire with her heavily perfumed raspberry pink petals – a lush heirloom Bourbon rose which forms a vigorous shrub or can be trained as a short climber.
If you need an enthusiastic rambler to scramble up a tree, cover an ugly shed or garland a pergola, Paul’s Himalayan Musk has dainty sprays of fragrant pale pink flowers and will tolerate more shade than most.
For a well-behaved climber, include cottage garden favourite Cecile Brunner, which has prolific sprays of dainty pink fragrant flowers and good disease resistance.
Just Joey is a classic 1970s hybrid tea in mouth-watering apricot – fragrant, repeat flowering, and makes a gorgeous cut rose.
Another nostalgic favourite is Peace, with its generous yellow roses flushed with a delicate pink. It was developed by a French horticulturist before the Second World War. Anticipating the invasion by Germany he sent cuttings of the rose to his friends in America, and after the fighting was over it was given to each of the delegations at the inaugural meeting of the United Nations in 1945.
With the need for world peace as pressing now, this could also make a commemorative planting for this year’s 100th anniversary of 1918.
Black spot is unsightly and puts many gardeners off growing roses altogether. The best ways to prevent this are to buy good quality stock from reputable suppliers (see the list, right), choose disease-resistant varieties, and keep your plant in rude good health with good nutrition such as well-rotted farmyard manure.
Simple home remedies of baking soda, soap and water sprays can also be very effective against black spot.
February is a good time to plant bare root roses ready for the summer