Roses need sun, fertile soil and an annual prune. Bare-root plants go in between November and March; bush roses are pruned in late winter, climbers in winter and ramblers after flowering.
Disease-resistant varieties and a pair of sharp bypass secateurs remove most of the difficulty.
Roses have a reputation for being difficult that most modern varieties do not deserve. Given sun, a fertile soil that holds moisture and an annual prune, they flower for months and live for decades.
Single and semi-double flowers with visible stamens are of use to bees; tightly double blooms mostly are not. Disease resistance varies widely between varieties and is worth checking before buying, since it decides how much attention a rose will need.
Roses are sold bare-root, lifted from the nursery field while dormant, or in containers. Bare-root plants are available from about November to March and are planted during that period whenever the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged. Container plants can go in at any time of year but need regular watering through their first summer.
A site with at least four to six hours of sun suits most roses; a few ramblers and shrub roses tolerate a north-facing wall. The planting hole is dug wide enough to spread the roots, with garden compost or well-rotted manure mixed into the soil. On grafted plants the graft union, the swelling at the base of the stems, is set at or just below soil level.
Roses planted where roses grew before often fail to thrive, a problem known as replant disease. Replacing the soil in the planting area with soil from another part of the garden is the usual remedy.
Roses are hungry plants. A general or rose fertiliser is applied in spring as growth begins and again after the first flush of flowers in midsummer; feeding later than that encourages soft growth that frost damages. A mulch of compost or manure in spring holds moisture and feeds the soil. Newly planted roses and those in pots need watering in dry spells, at the base and not over the leaves.
Pruning keeps a rose vigorous and open to air and light. On all types, dead, diseased, damaged and crossing stems are removed first. Cuts are made just above an outward-facing bud and sloped away from it.
Removing faded flowers through summer, known as deadheading, encourages repeat-flowering roses to produce more. Roses grown for their hips are left alone.
Three tools cover almost all rose work. Bypass secateurs, with two blades that pass each other like scissors, make a cleaner cut on live wood than the anvil type, which tends to crush stems. Long-handled loppers deal with stems thicker than a finger, and a folding pruning saw with the oldest wood at the base. Thorn-proof gauntlets that cover the forearm are needed for climbers and ramblers.
Blades are kept sharp, and wiping them with disinfectant between plants reduces the spread of disease.
Black spot, a fungal disease that causes dark blotches and early leaf fall, is the most common rose problem in Britain, followed by powdery mildew and rust. Resistant varieties, good air circulation, mulching and clearing fallen leaves in autumn all reduce it. Mildew is worst on plants that are dry at the roots, which is common against walls.
Greenfly gather on shoot tips and buds in spring. Small colonies can be rubbed off by hand, and ladybirds, hoverfly larvae and blue tits usually bring numbers down within weeks. Insecticides applied to plants in flower harm bees and other pollinators.