Wealden Times | WT265 | June 2024 | Education Supplement inside

hips the size of tomatoes in the
autumn. It makes a great hedge
and is often the rootstock chosen
to graft other roses onto.
Most of the New English roses
have been bred to have disease
resistance and are lovely and almost
as robust as the species varieties,
but if you do have some in the
garden that are prone to problems,
it pays to set up a simple annual
regime to keep them in the best
possible health. Roses tend to suffer
most from fungal infections like
Rust and Black Spot, which are
hard to eradicate completely, but
may be kept in abeyance. Fungal
infections proliferate in humid, still
conditions, so providing a free flow
of air around the plants will help to
blow the fungal spores away. Prune
carefully in the spring to ‘open’ up
the plant – the books will tell you
to prune to an outward-facing bud,
or to aim for a goblet shape. This
is to ensure good air circulation.
Roses are hungry plants and use
up a lot of energy in flowering,
so feed and mulch well in spring
as they come into leaf, and then
give them a little pick-me-up tonic
of a high potash fertiliser just as
the first flush of flowers finishes
to encourage them to keep going.
Pick up and dispose of any infected
leaves as you find them. I don’t
spray with pesticides, but will use
a (somewhat stinky) homemade
garlicky concoction that I mix up
with a soup blender – basically 2
chillies, 1 onion and a whole bulb
of garlic mashed down with water
and then strained through muslin.
It deters pests and, as garlic is antifungal,
helps to keep these diseases
at bay too – but make sure you
are upwind of it when you spray.
On the whole roses are resilient
plants – ‘it’s been a good year for the
roses’ is a phrase that seems to be
trotted out every year. They manage
to cope with most conditions and,
once established, even periods of
drought don’t seem to bother them
too much. There is a rose to suit all
preferences – climbing, bush, ground
cover – and almost all colours
including blue (called ‘Blue Moon’),
which is an aberration, but might
go nicely with a red delphinium…
Roses for fragrance
• ‘The Generous
Gardener’ – climber
• ‘Boscobel’ – large shrub
• ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ – shrub
• ‘Charles de Mills’ – shrub
Roses for hips
• Rosa moyesii ‘Geranium’
– climber
• Rosa rugosa – shrub
• ‘Rambling Rector’
– large rambler
Floribunda rose ‘Coconut Ice’
Specialist rose suppliers
David Austin –
davidaustin.co.uk
Trevor White –
trevorwhiteroses.co.uk
Peter Beales – classicroses.co.uk
Harkness – roses.co.uk
Rumwood (Maidstone) –
rumwoodnurseries.co.uk
Join Jo for a gardening class
at her garden in Woodchurch.
See hornbrookmanor.co.uk
or call 07923 969634.
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