Roses are a thorn in my side no more

Solving problems with productivity and disease has changed Sarah Raven’s opinion of the cut flower

I’ve been growing cut flowers at Perch Hill for more than 20 years but have never really gone in for roses. A bowl of home-grown, irregularly shaped, full-headed roses is undeniably a lovely thing, but I always felt their rate of flower production was too light to justify space in the cutting garden, and I didn’t like the idea that we had to give them a regular fungicide and insecticide spray to keep them looking good enough to pick and bring inside.

I’ve changed my mind. Both these negatives have now been addressed. First, on disease, we’ve had such success here with under-planting roses using the hybrid microphylla and salvia x jamensis, it’s no longer a worry. With salvias planted all through the rose garden (see far right for varieties) we can keep most of the rose black spot and mildew at bay, so forget the idea that roses are best grown in splendid isolation. The opposite is the case.

I have a theory that salvias have sulphur in their scent profile (squash the leaves and you’ll see what I mean) and that in the heat of the day, they release some sort of natural fungicide into the air to keep the roses clean. We all had pristine roses until the Clean Air Act of 1956 and 1968, when levels of sulphur dioxide were hugely reduced. Maybe salvias have the same effect in a non-toxic way.

The hooded flowers of salvias are also stacked full of nectar, continually a-buzz with pollinators and they attract plenty of beneficial insects such as lacewings and ladybirds, whose larvae then feast on aphids. That also helps keep our roses clean.

Flower productivity has also been transformed; rose breeding in the past few decades has hugely increased the average length of flowering and the colour range is now extraordinary. I didn’t know I wanted a rose the colour of milky coffee, or one in mustard fading into grey, but these rose colours are now among my favourites (see “Honey Dijon” and “Julia’s Rose”/ “Koko Loco” right). Rose “de Rescht” and “Gertrude Jekyll” have long been known for their length of flowering – and picking – and they are indeed good varieties, but neither can compete with these newly bred cut flower forms for the number of flowers per bush produced in one harvesting season.

It is now bare root rose planting time and we’re about to get going with a new rose picking patch here at Perch Hill. With the plants dormant, this is an excellent way of getting hold of a good range of roses without spending an arm and a leg. If you want flowers for picking, try to fit in at least three of each variety you fancy and, in May, remember to under-plant with one of the aromatic salvias. These are borderline hardy so are safest planted in the spring and then propagated every autumn to guarantee plants from year to year.

And with Christmas upon us, a trio of any of these picking roses would make a great present for a gardener. They’ll arrive in the post and with the weather still mild they can be planted out straight away, or keep their roots damp until you can give them as a gift in a thick, thorn-resistant hessian bag tied with ribbon.

To the right are the cut flower roses that have performed well for me, covering a good range of colour and with good vase lives. They also flower for ages, from June until September as a minimum, and they have good scent. All of them feel so voluptuous and wonderful to cut and bring inside.