How to grow roses 101: All you need to know

Have you ever wanted to grow roses but thought it was too difficult? We’ll show you how simple and easy it is. 

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TYPES OF ROSES

Knowing the different types of roses will help to decode the label so you can choose the right kind for your garden.

Ingrid Kast - grow roses

Ingrid Kast

HYBRID TEAS have perfectly symmetrical blooms, are good for picking and bushes have a formal, upright shape, ranging from medium to very tall. Plant them 80cm apart.

SUITABLE FOR: Formal gardens and geometrically shaped beds.

WHAT’S NEW: ‘Ingrid Kast’ (1,1m high), produces a profusion of violet-red blooms.

Happy Birthday - grow roses

Happy Birthday

FLORIBUNDAS produce clusters of double or semi-double blooms on spreading, hardy bushes. Space plants 70cm apart.

SUITABLE FOR: Massing together and grouping with other plants in a mixed border.

WHAT’S NEW: ‘Happy Birthday’ (1m high), grows like ‘Iceberg’ with striped red and creamy yellow blooms.

READ MORE: Step-by-step rose pruning guide

Antico Moderno ‘Roberto Capucci’ - grow roses

Antico Moderno ‘Roberto Capucci’

Garden and Home - grow roses

Garden and Home

ANTICO MODERNOS are similar to hybrid teas in growth and height, but have old-fashioned pickable blooms.

SUITABLE FOR: Mixing with hybrid teas and floribundas.

BEST SELLER: ‘Garden and Home’ (1,2m high), is sweetly perfumed, disease resistant and flowers profusely.

Moonlit Spire - grow roses

Moonlit Spire

SPIRES are very tall with a neat, vertical habit and pickable hybrid tea-shaped blooms.

SUITABLE FOR: Background plantings, to brighten up high bare walls and fences, in corners and as neat hedges.

RECOMMENDED: ‘Moonlit Spire’ (2m high), provides abundant cut flowers.

Lemon Essence - grow roses

Lemon Essence

FAIRY TALES are vigorous, shrubby plants that flower continuously, producing old-fashioned blooms. They’re generally disease resistant and need little care.

SUITABLE FOR: Mixed beds, as hedges and as specimen plants.

WHAT’S NEW: ‘Lemon Essence’ is a disease-resistant shrubby rose with large clusters of double blooms and an extraordinarily strong fragrance.

READ MORE: 5 Fragrant climbers

Sunset Panarosa - grow roses

Sunset Panarosa

PANAROSAS are free-standing plants (2–3m high and wide), with flowers on every cane. Flower shapes vary from hybrid tea to double and the old-fashioned shapes.

SUITABLE FOR: Use as single-specimen plants, as a hedge, as a climber along a fence, trained up a pillar or over an arch or pergola.

WHAT’S NEW: ‘Sunset Panarosa’ is a statuesque shrub with arching stems.

White Figurine - grow roses

White Figurine

STANDARDS are bush roses with elongated stems created by being budded onto a root stock cane either 90cm or 60cm high.

SUITABLE FOR: Providing colour at an intermediate height. Their other attribute is that they fit into awkward, long, narrow and unusual spaces.

MINIATURE roses range in height from 20cm–80cm with miniature blooms and small leaves.

SUITABLE FOR: Edgings, at the base of taller roses, along a walkway, around patios and in containers.

WHAT’S NEW: ‘White Figurine’ (60cm high), is fragrant with perfectly shaped white blooms.

Granny Dearest - grow roses

Granny Dearest

COLOURSCAPE roses have a spreading growth habit with hybrid tea, floribunda, cluster or miniature-sized blooms on short flowering stems.

SUITABLE FOR: Groundcovers in containers and as borders. Those with an arching growth (2m high and wide), can be trained up a trellis, around a pillar and planted in hanging baskets.

RECOMMENDED: ‘My Granny’, ‘Granny’s Delight’ and ‘Granny Dearest’ are free flowering with old-fashioned blooms.

READ MORE: 6 good reasons to grow hedges

Cherry Garland - grow roses

Cherry Garland

Crème Caramel - grow roses

Crème Caramel

CLIMBING ROSES produce long basal stems that can be trained horizontally and vertically against a wall or trellis to encourage flowering. They need to be tied to their supports.

Isidingo - grow roses

Isidingo

SUITABLE FOR: Training along fences, up pillars and over an archway or pergola. ‘Miniature’ climbers (Midinette roses) are the most suitable climbing roses for small and medium-sized gardens.

RECOMMENDED: ‘Wedding Garland’, ‘Cherry Garland’, ‘Cocktail’, ‘Blossom Time’, ‘Crème Caramel’, ‘Isidingo’ and ‘Deloitte & Touche’.

More roses here