How does your garden grow? Our top tips for maintaining your roses!

There are two very important factors when planting roses to make sure you give them the best chance to thrive – firstly, make sure they are in the right growing conditions and secondly, plant them properly.  Sounds straightforward, well in truth it is, but a bit more knowledge goes a long way to a blooming beautiful garden.

1. Plant your roses in full sunlight – be sure that they never have less than four hours sunlight on them each day or you will notice reduced flowering.
2. Never consider growing roses in areas with a cold draught or in waterlogged ground.
3. Enrich your soil with organic matter, such as well-rotted manure, and plant your roses there.
4. Before planting, prune back all the branches to about 15cm (6in) in length to concentrate the plant’s energies on producing a strong root system.
5. Roses are greedy, so for best results plant them in rich soil, mulch annually with compost, seaweed or manure, and feed in spring and summer with a proprietary rose fertilizer.
6.  

   If you spot the first signs of black spot then make sure you treat it right away by removing diseased foliage and burning it.

7. Deadhead your rose bushes regularly to encourage more flowers to grow, leaving late blooms to form hips.
8. Pruning is essential for flowering, but varies depending on type, so ensure that you check what your rose bush will require when you buy.

And with a good regular watering you should have a beautiful bush all summer.

Whatever you do enjoy soaking up the health benefits of garden beauty.