My love grows
ROSES are your go-to Valentine’s flower. But if you really want to impress and say I love you for ever, forget the bouquet and give a rose bush.
Buy varieties with romantic names, such as Valentine Heart, which produces lilac-pink blooms, and Marry Me, which is a pink patio rose.
The beautiful floribunda Sexy Rexy has dark, long buds that unfold to reveal sumptuous blooms. They have gorgeous velvety petals that are shaded blood red and deep crimson, with a fruity fragrance. It is one of the best roses of all time and has won six prestigious gold medals.
Cloud Nine grows well in a large patio pot on a sunny spot, as long as it is kept away from root-compacted soil and the shade of a tree.
Lovely Lady produces voluptuous, blowsy blooms on bushy plants, making it an ideal bedding variety. Double rose pink blooms develop slowly from large, oval buds into well-formed fragrant flowers and are good for cutting.
The fresh, glistening pink flowers of Hero make this rampant climber a perfect choice for a man – especially a DIY enthusiast that can build you an arbour with a love seat beneath. Flowers have a strong myrrh fragrance. Grow Hero in groups of three to provide plenty of blooms, which are held in sprays, for cutting.
Standard roses are the perfect way of getting more flowers from a limited space. They are ideal for planting as specimens, adding height to flower beds and making an attractive centrepiece to formal designs such as box parterres and herb gardens.
They can also be grown in pots on the patio. Choose weeping varieties for a spectacular waterfall effect of colourful blooms.
Standard roses only need a light pruning to maintain their circular head. The tangled stems on neglected plants should be cut back by at least one third.
To induce vigour, especially with weeping varieties, remove all the old shoots at the base to leave up to six growths in all. You should follow pruning with feeding.