Gardeners’ World expert shares simple tip for the most stunning roses ‘you’ll never see in garden centres’ and it’s a game-changer
The time of year to plant roses is fast approaching, so if you’ve been thinking of adding some roses to your garden now could be the ideal time.
Gardening expert Monty Don has revealed the hacks he swears by for ensuring that you get thriving roses. In a recent episode of BBC Gardeners’ World, Monty shared some of his best tips for planting ‘the nation’s favourite flower’. He also revealed that containerised roses – roses grown in a pot – can be planted at any time throughout the year, as long as the soil conditions are right.
He explained: “If the soil is sticking to your boots or your hands, wait for it to dry a bit,” he said. “If it’s powdery, dig the planting hole then fill it with water and let the water drain away before planting.” Although containerised roses are more versatile, Monty explained that he prefers to opt for bare-root roses as he finds they tend to be ‘healthier, much cheaper, and you have much more variety to choose from’.
“If you buy bare-root roses they have to be planted when they’re dormant, which means November through to the end of February,” he said. “You won’t be able to get bare-root plants before November anyway.” If you want to grow bare-root roses, the gardening expert recommends ordering them online directly from a nursery, so that they can be delivered to you later this year.
He explains that this will ensure you end up with stunning roses that ‘you’ll never see in a garden centre’. Adding that: “All the best rose growers have a really wide choice of bare-root plants. When you receive bare-root plants they either have to go into a bucket of water immediately and be planted within a day or so or they have to be healed in.
“By healing in all it means is you dig a sort of temporary trench and cover them up. What I do is just dig a slit about that deep and pile the earth up around them so the roots are covered. The roots must never, ever be exposed to the air.
“I always have them planted when I’ve had them in a bucket. They go from bucket to hole because the little feeding roots are the width of a hair, they are very fine and they will dry out literally in minutes. If they dry out there’s a tendency for them to die and therefore the feeding is interrupted.”
Although bare-root roses take more planning than containerised roses, Don said the process doesn’t have to be stressful. “The great thing about roses is they are tough,” he said.
