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Summer in a pot… roses for small spaces
A shortage of garden – or total lack of one – should not stop you from revelling in the dreamy, scented lushness of roses, says Val Bourne
No one can deny the fact: roses are universally popular with gardeners. Most flower in June, the month when summer promises so much and that soft swirl of petals captures the softness of a perfect summer’s day. You can’t help but bury your nose to catch the scent, and the best varieties frame their flowers with handsome, glossy foliage as well.
Fashions change though, and few of us have the space, or the desire, to make a dedicated rose garden. Gardens are getting smaller and a new generation of rose lovers have started to grow their roses in pots, placed on a terrace, patio or gravel.
Here, six expert rosarians pick the best roses for containers and share their growing tips.
PERFECT ON THE PATIO
Smaller roses suit smaller spaces, and Elizabeth Sawday, of Apuldram Roses in Essex, regularly wows the crowds at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show with her displays of diminutive blooms, although this family nursery stocks a wide range, not just patio roses.
“Even small roses are demanding in pots because they’re always greedy and always thirsty,” warns Sawday.
Her favourite water-retentive potting compost, Westland’s Rose Planting & Potting Mix, feeds roses for six months, and the added sulphur helps to combat blackspot.
Her top tip with all patio roses is to cut them back hard when they’re dormant, to just 2-4in (up to 10cm): “Then they’ll produce vigorous new growth from the base.”
‘Carefree Days’, raised in France by Meilland in 2012, is one of the few to receive an Award of Garden Merit (AGM) from the RHS. “It’s my perfect button-hole rose with exquisitely shaped darker buds that open to satinpink. It fills a pot beautifully and the foliage is glossy and green,” she says.
Another Meilland rose, ‘Pretty Polly’, is also highly regarded by Sawday.
She agrees that most patio roses lack scent. However, the cool lilac-pink flowers of ‘Dream Lover’ have a strong sweet-pea fragrance and an abundance of flowers (apuldramroses.co.uk; 01243 785769).
GROW THEM ALONE
Michael Marriott, ex-head rosarian at David Austin Roses, believes good fragrance is the most important attribute for any rose grown in a container, followed by a compact shape.
“It helps when roses have light all around them,” he adds, “because they develop a rounder, fuller shape.” He adores the eye-catching ‘Princess Alexandra of Kent’, raised by Austin in 2007, for its perfectly formed medium-sized bright pink blooms. The tea scent has early hints of lemon, followed by mellow blackcurrant – and it’s a toughie.
‘The Lady Gardener’, a peaches and cream Austin rose raised in 2013, has bright green foliage and large, loosely arranged apricot rosettes that fade to clotted cream on the edges. The allimportant fragrance evokes a spicy mixture of cedar wood and vanilla.
Marriott also uses shorter, repeatflowering climbers in pots placed against walls. Colin Horner’s ‘Rambling Rosie’, named in 2005, has large clusters of small crimson flowers. The sheer weight of bloom allows the flowers to swoon a little, without looking floppy.
This Gold Standard rose (visit rosesuk. com for further information about this and other rose trials) has exceptionally healthy, glossy green foliage and is hardly ever out of flower, so it will please the pollinators. Although only lightly fragrant, this one’s such a stunner it made Marriott’s list.
His top tip is to add a third of garden soil to the potting mixture, to help with water retention. He doesn’t overfeed his potted roses either: “Just sprinkle on a general rose fertiliser twice a year, in spring and again after the first flush.”
When it comes to companion plants, he’s had mixed success. “Roses don’t enjoy cheek by jowl planting, and the rich growing media tends to promote lush growth.” He edged some pots with small spring violas, but they “started to climb the stems” so he prefers to stick to roses alone. Miniature spring bulbs, that fade away by early May, would work (michaelmarriottrosarian.org).
GO FOR A FLOWER CARPET
Ian Limmer, nursery manager at Peter Beales in Norfolk, is always on the lookout for newly bred healthy roses. He’s excited about a Belgium-bred climber named ‘Waterloo’ because it looks like a smaller version of ‘Rambling Rector’.
‘Waterloo’ will repeat-flower until November and form hips, so he’s keen to use it in the display garden over an obelisk. “They add height and create focal points,” Limmer adds.
White can look stark in bright midday sunshine, so give it a bright spot rather than full midday sun.
“If you want a procumbent groundcover rose that’s almost evergreen, the American-bred ‘Flower Carpet’ roses are excellent,” he says. “They will flower until Christmas, although you have to trim them back soon after.”
‘Pink Flower Carpet’ and ‘Red Velvet Flower Carpet’ are his two go-to varieties and both will cascade over a pot. Red roses are particularly effective in black pots. He’s also keen on the repeatflowering miniature rambler ‘Open Arms’ because there’s an exceptional late flush of semi-double shell-pink flowers in September and October (classicroses.co.uk; 01953 454707).
HEALTHY FOLIAGE IS A MUST
Rose grower Philip Harkness is the fourth generation to run Harkness Roses in Hertfordshire.
He specialises in raising healthy traditional floribundas and hybrid teas, many of which cut well too. He believes that roses “need large pots to do well and the bigger the pot the better, because they are easier to look after”.
Harkness also rates foliage highly, because healthy roses look stunning long before the flowers appear.
All modern Harkness roses are selected from the trials field for health, reliability and vigour.
‘Captain Tom’, newly released to celebrate Captain Sir Tom Moore’s valiant lockdown efforts of 2020, benefits the Captain Tom Foundation.
It’s a very fragrant, repeat-flowering, compact hybrid tea with military-red double flowers supported by sultry foliage. It’s perfect in a pot.
Equally eye-catching, but a little more feminine in form, is ‘Claire Marshall’, a fully petalled, strongly fragrant floribunda with purple-pink flowers that morph to almost mulberry in evening light.
Launched in 2010, this rose flowers May to October, in generous flushes, and the foliage is a delicious glossy green (roses.co.uk; 01462 420402).
KEEP AN EYE ON DRAINAGE
Richard Stubbs, senior rose adviser at David Austin Roses, replaces the first few centimetres of compost every year for his potted roses. He mixes up 60 per cent multipurpose with 40 per cent John Innes compost to add drainage and friability, when potting.
“Good frost-proof terracotta pots tend to take water away from the roots and they’re expensive. Lining with a plastic bin liner helps, as long as there are drainage holes,” he says.
‘Silas Marner’, introduced in 2020, has a fruity lemon, green banana and apricot fragrance, and there are touches of warm-sunset to the ruffled pink flowers (davidaustin.co.uk; 0800 111 4699).
PURPLE IS A WINNER
Rachel and Keith Jones, of C & K Jones, supply roses by mail order from their Cheshire nursery. Keith, always known as “Jones the Rose”, also attends the larger flower shows and they can never grow enough ‘Minerva’, a Belgian rose introduced in 2015.
Rachel tells me that “purple roses don’t sell on the internet, because they look dull in photographs, but they fly out at shows. This one has a strong, traditional rose fragrance and the petals crystallise well and add flavour to desserts”.
‘Celebration Time’, an American rose named in 2009, has a fiery mix of raspberry-pink semi-double blooms with hints of orange. “It’s never out of flower and the young foliage is a glossy red.”
Finally, Rachel and Keith rate ‘Heartfelt Thanks’, a French-bred pink floribunda with bee-pleasing semidouble flowers.
A £5 donation from every sale is made to Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital to thank them for fitting a new heart valve to Jones the Rose a year ago ( jonestherose.co.uk; 01829 740663).
‘It helps when roses have light all around them because they develop a rounder, fuller shape’