Spring and autumn are the perfect time to introduce new plants to borders, like roses.
In autumn, the bare-root season is around the corner, so you should find good deals on potted roses at garden centres and nurseries who’ll be keen to clear their potted stock.
For your rose, choose a site that isn’t too windy with fertile soil. A sheltered spot will stop your new rose rocking in autumn winds, giving it a better chance of establishing. Avoid soil that’s been used to grow roses – this will help to eliminate disease. If you have to use the same growing space, try to replace all the soil or use mycorrhizal fungi.
For more expert advice on growing roses, check out our grow guides for species and shrub roses, climbing roses, rambling roses and ground cover roses.
Follow the four easy steps below to plant a potted rose.
Dig a hole that’s slightly larger than your rose’s container, then break up the soil at the base and work well-rotted farmyard manure into the soil at the bottom of the hole.
Remove the container, sprinkling mycorrhizal fungi over the roots. Position the plant in the hole with the graft union just below the soil surface, so that it will be totally covered by soil when planting is completed. Fill in the hole, gently pressing down to get rid of air gaps.
Mulch the soil around the rose with more well-rotted manure, but leave a 10cm gap around the stem. This will reduce weed competition and improve soil condition. Repeat in spring.
Water to settle the soil around the roots. This is one of the most important aspects of planting anything new. Make sure that the soil doesn’t dry out while the rose establishes.
Spider plants are an attractive and easy to care for houseplant, which makes them a popular choice for indoor gardening. If you are like me, however, and tend to completely forget about your houseplants for weeks or – I’ll admit it – sometimes months on end, you may find yourself faced with a wilting spider plant. Lucky for folks like me, this issue is not hard to recover from. Read on to learn why a spider plant may wilt, and some ways to help it bounce b
When you want to grow tomatoes but the soil in your garden is sticky and lumpy, is there any way to meet your goals? You’ll be happy to know you can grow tomatoes in clay soil! But let’s put a couple of qualifiers on that statement. You can succeed, but achieving success will be more difficult than it is for your fellow gardeners who are growing in easy-to-till loam. Hard, heavy earth is never going to be anyone’s first choice of growing medium for these s
There’s an old saying among gardeners: ‘a penny for the plant and a pound for the hole’. Preparation and planting is the best way to ensure your plants grow well. The more work you put in to preparing the soil, the better the results will be. Getting a plant off to a good start will mean you can reap the rewards later, be they flowers and fruit or simply a strong, established plant that needs little aftercare. Gardening for beginners – 10 tips Browse our tips on how to plant, below. B
Climbing roses are the perfect plants to add height to a garden. Nearly all climbers offer more than one flush of flowers, and the time to prune is from autumn and through winter, while the rose is dormant. Unlike rambling roses, which can be pruned back hard more readily, it’s only the side shoots of climbing roses that are pruned. This gradually builds up a framework that can be tied in to fences and walls. When to prune climbing roses Climbing roses should be pruned in winter. Most roses