Innehållsförteckning för Guide to Roses 2025 från BBC Gardeners' World

Roses are routinely voted as our favourite flower, so it’s no surprise they’re at the heart of many gardens up and down the land. And why not? There’s a rose for every garden, whether you’re looking for a climber to cover a fence, one that will do well in a container or small space, or one that will repeat flower over several months. And that’s not to mention the myriad colours to choose from, the beautiful scent roses create and the endless scope for cutting blooms to bring indoors. Roses are simple to grow, too, and you’ll find everything you need to get the best out of them in this special edition. From planting and pruning advice, to reliable varieties and great plant partners, the expert advice on these pages…

Top tip Floribunda roses are repeat flowering, so deadheading them will help extend the flowering season. Tip Floribundas will do well in most well-drained soils. Give them lots of space as they are vigorous, with strong roots.…

Pick the right rose and it can brighten up a shady corner of the garden, providing colour and interest, as well as flowers, hips and shelter for wildlife. Most roses thrive in a sunny position. There are some, though, that grow well in shady areas, as long as the shade isn’t caused by trees, which take a lot of moisture from the soil. There are very few roses that can take full shade, so bear in mind that roses will still need some sun – the minimum you’ll need to provide is around four hours of sunshine per day in summer.…

Ground cover roses are trailing or spreading woody perennials that offer months of flowers. These low-growing roses are perfect for growing in a container or on steep banks that are diffcult to garden. Many are modern introductions and have good disease resistance. The Flower Carpet range is very popular. Expect flowers all summer and, if happy, they’ll also suppress any weeds. Avoid the sprawling, rambler types if planting in a container though. Roses are hardy plants and can cope with unfavourable conditions, however, in order to thrive, ground cover roses prefer a sunny spot in well-drained, fertile soil. Some will cope with partial shade.…

Discover how to tackle some of the most common rose pests and diseases. If you already have roses growing, these are some of the problems you might come across. If you haven’t bought any roses yet, there are some that are more resistant to disease than others. ‘Buxom Beauty’ is a hybrid tea with good disease resistance while shrub rose ‘Princess Anne’ and rugosa rose ’Hansa’ are very healthy. Choosing a healthy rose to start with will make growing a lot easier because if a variety of rose is prone to disease it will always succumb to it eventually. As a rule of thumb, the thicker and more glossy the foliage, the more disease-resistant the rose will be. Conserving moisture by watering and mulching will help prevent mildew and black…

With our special edition guides on sale in 2025… On sale now… Your Guide to Roses Coming up… Your Pruning Year on sale 13 February Gardening for Shade on sale 20 March Grow Your Own on sale 1 May Creative Containers on sale 5 June Gardening for Wildlife on sale 10 July Complete Guide to Bulbs on sale 14 August Creative Christmas on sale 23 October Year Planner 2026 on sale 27 November Available in stores and online at bit.ly/guides-gw…

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Roses are renowned for their wonderful scent. But they don’t all have a strong fragrance and they don’t all smell the same – they range from the traditional old-rose scent, through tea, citrus, honey, clove, myrrh, musk, apple, almond and even aromas like cucumber. Old roses have classic floral notes and are strong and lasting; those with a sweet scent have an almost sugary fragrance; a fruit scent has strong notes of apples and pears; a musk scent is a deep, lingering aniseed-like perfume, while a tea scent is spicy with hints of freshly picked tea and citrus. It’s worth noting that some have little or no fragrance, so make sure you have a good sniff before buying.…

Tip Hard-prune patio roses in spring, otherwise they will become leggy. Refresh the compost at the same time. Top Tip Choose the largest, deepest container you can to keep roses’ roots cool and moist during the summer.…

Roses are the perfect plants for cut flowers – they come in a wide range of colours, with a variety of wonderful fragrances and shapes. Double roses have attractive ruffed petals, while single roses are perfect for simple but pretty displays. To get the best results from your roses, cut the stems just as the flowers are about to open and cut them either first thing in the morning or in the evening. For an eye-catching, end-of-season dash of colour, leave the last roses of the year to develop their hips and add these to your vases for seasonal interest.…

Although most roses benefit from deep, rich soil, there are plenty of roses that will grow well in poor soil, too. You need robust ones – roses bred with Rosa rugosa such as ‘Fru Dagmar Hastrup’ are a good pick, as are the ‘old’ roses, which are extremely tough plants. The roses we’ve picked will cope with a wide range of growing conditions, from dense, heavy clay to free-draining sandy soil, as well as thin chalk. And their simple flowers mean they’re perfect plants for bees and other garden wildlife, too. Although growing tough roses will help here, it’s also a good idea to improve sandy and chalky soil with organic matter.…

Ideally, it’s best not to plant roses in windy, exposed sites, but roses are tough plants and if you choose the right varieties, there are some that can cope in tricky locations. Look for ones that are strong growers, not too tall and with small flowers. Cutting roses back in autumn will also help to avoid windrock, which will disturb the roots. Rosa rugosa cultivars are good survivors in tough positions as they grow in dense, compact clumps and aren’t as affected by the wind as taller, more spindly varieties.…

Apuldram Roses 01243 785769, apuldramroses.co.uk C&K Jones 01829 740663, jonestherose.co.uk Crocus 01344 578111, crocus.co.uk David Austin Roses 01902 376300, davidaustinroses.co.uk Dickson Roses 07821 922204, dickson-roses.co.uk Eastcroft Roses, 07710 028737, eastcroftroses.co.uk Fryer’s Roses, 01565 755455, fryersroses.co.uk Harkness Roses 0333 210 1044, roses.co.uk Peter Beales Roses 01953 454707, classicroses.co.uk Pococks Roses 01794 367500, garden-roses.co.uk Rumwood Nurseries 01622 861477, rumwoodnurseries.co.uk Style Roses 01406 424089, styleroses.co.uk Trevor White Roses 01603 755135 trevorwhiteroses.co.uk…

There’s a huge variety of rose flower styles, from simple single roses with five petals to double blooms that can have more than 100 petals. Roses like hybrid teas have more pointed centres, whereas some of the ‘old’ roses have spectacular and showy pompon shapes. There are roses that form rosettes which look ruffed, as well as shallow cups, deep cups and open cups. They can have petals that curve inwards to create a more closed shape, or petals that curve outwards which opens up the flower. Those with a ‘button eye’ have an attractive focal point in the centre, where there are lots of small petals curved into the middle of the rose so that it looks like a button.…

The best hips are found on species roses. Often, deadheading means that gardeners never get to enjoy the sight of bold red or orange hips brightening up the winter garden. Although deadheading encourages more flowers, it’s worth leaving some of the dying flowers near the end of the season as they’ll turn into eye-catching hips in early autumn. Rambler and climbing roses are good choices for hips as their trusses of flowers turn into hundreds of hips. Hips are also edible and a rich source of vitamin C, with levels up to 10 times greater than oranges. Harvest them just after the first frosts have softened them, but when they’re still firm.…

Whether you’ve got a dull fence in a sunny space that needs brightening up or a problematic north-facing wall, there’s a huge variety of climbers and rambling roses to choose from. It’s easy to transform boundaries with roses if you pick the right rose for your aspect. Many are also vigorous growers and can cover an area quickly to provide good coverage, although choose wisely if you have a small garden or short fence because it is diffcult to control a rose that is too vigorous for its space.…

How to plant roses is the subject of much discussion among gardeners. One thing that’s agreed is roses need some sunshine and deep, rich, moistureretentive soil – they prefer heavy-ish conditions, including well-improved clay. That’s why old traditional rose growers had nurseries in places where the soil is clay loam. You can still grow good roses even if you have light or ‘problem’ soil – just add plenty of stodgy, well-rotted compost or manure, or choose roses more tolerant of lighter soils. Where some people go wrong is shoe-horning roses into a tiny planting hole and cramping the roots. Think big – dig a hole twice the size of the rootball of a container-grown rose, and twice the width and depth of the roots of a bareroot rose. Work plenty…

Pruning Q How do I renovate my tangled rambling roses? A Rambling roses, unlike climbers, flower only once each year, on stems that grew the previous year. Autumn/winter is a good time to renovate a rambler as you can easily see the tangled stems. Remove any dead or diseased stems, then trim up to one third of the oldest growth, pruning out whole stems as close as possible to the ground. Next, tie in this year’s growth as close to horizontal as possible, to promote blooms along the entire length. Prune the side shoots on the remaining stems and cut back the main stem tips by one third. Feed with a granular fertiliser and mulch heavily in spring. Q Can you tell me how to prune a standard rose? A…