Celebration Rose Collection

Where to Plant
Choose a sunny, sheltered position with fertile, moisture-retentive but well-drained soil. Roses flower best with plenty of sunshine and good air circulation around the plants.

Planting Bare-Root Roses
Unpack your roses promptly and soak the roots in a bucket of water for a couple of hours before planting. Dig a generous hole, spread the roots out naturally and position each rose with the graft union around soil level. Backfill, firm gently and water well.

Planting Potted Roses
Water well before planting and dig a hole slightly wider than the root ball. Remove the rose from its pot, gently loosen any tightly packed roots and plant at the same depth it was growing in the pot. Backfill, gently firm and water thoroughly.

Watering
Water regularly during the first growing season while your roses establish, particularly during warm, dry weather. Established plants will also appreciate a thorough watering during prolonged dry spells.

Feeding & Mulching
Feed with a suitable rose fertiliser in spring as new growth begins and again in summer to support repeat flowering. Mulch with well-rotted garden compost or organic matter to help retain moisture and suppress weeds, keeping the mulch clear of the stems.

Beds & Borders
These compact to medium-sized roses work beautifully in sunny beds and borders. Plant the three together for a colourful rose display or spread them through an existing border where their repeat flowers can provide colour from summer into autumn.

Create a Celebration Rose Bed
‘Birthday Girl’ brings creamy-yellow flowers edged and flushed with pink, ‘Mum in a Million’ provides rich pink blooms, while ‘Silver Anniversary’ adds elegant white. Together they make a lovely collection for creating a dedicated rose bed to mark a special occasion.

Plant Near Paths & Seating
Fragrance runs through the collection, so grow the roses somewhere you'll regularly pass or spend time. ‘Mum in a Million’ is particularly notable for its rich classic rose fragrance.

Grow for Cutting
‘Mum in a Million’ and ‘Silver Anniversary’ are Hybrid Teas with large flowers carried on strong stems, making them particularly good for cutting. ‘Birthday Girl’ produces its flowers in clusters, adding a different style of bloom to arrangements.

Large Containers
Their manageable size also makes these roses suitable for generous patio containers with good drainage. Container-grown roses need regular watering and feeding throughout the growing season.

Pruning
Prune in late winter or early spring, starting by removing dead, damaged, weak or crossing growth. ‘Mum in a Million’ and ‘Silver Anniversary’ are Hybrid Teas and can be pruned fairly firmly to encourage strong new flowering stems. ‘Birthday Girl’ is a Floribunda, so aim to retain a slightly bushier, well-branched framework.

Deadheading
Remove faded flowers regularly through the flowering season to keep the plants tidy and encourage further flushes. On ‘Birthday Girl’, which carries its flowers in clusters, remove individual faded blooms before cutting back the whole cluster once it has finished flowering.

Cutting Flowers
Cut flowers as the buds begin to open using clean, sharp secateurs, preferably while the plants are well hydrated. Place the stems into water promptly and avoid removing too much foliage from young plants while they're establishing.

Summer Care
Water thoroughly during prolonged dry spells and give the roses another feed in summer to support continued flowering. Keep the ground around the plants free from weeds and maintain a mulch to help conserve soil moisture.

Top Tip
These roses don't all need exactly the same pruning. The Hybrid Teas benefit from firmer pruning to encourage strong flowering stems, while the Floribunda should retain more of its branching structure to support its characteristic clusters of flowers.

Soften the Edges
Lower-growing perennials such as hardy geraniums and nepeta work well around rose bushes, softening the base of the plants and adding another layer of summer colour.

Add Contrasting Shapes
Salvias, veronicas and penstemons provide upright flower spikes that contrast beautifully with the rounded rose blooms. Blue and purple shades work particularly well alongside the pink, cream and white flowers in this collection.

Add Spring Colour
Spring bulbs provide interest before the roses reach their summer peak. Alliums are particularly useful for carrying colour from late spring towards the beginning of the main rose season.

Make the Planting Meaningful
If you're planting this collection to mark a birthday, anniversary or another special occasion, surrounding the roses with a simple palette of long-lived perennials can help create a dedicated part of the garden that becomes fuller and more established with each passing year.

Bare-Root Roses
Bare-root roses are supplied during autumn and winter while dormant, without a pot or compost around their roots. They will usually arrive with woody stems and exposed roots, with little or no foliage. This is completely normal and fresh growth will appear as temperatures rise.

Potted Roses
Potted roses are supplied established in compost and can be planted for much of the year, avoiding frozen, waterlogged or extremely dry conditions. Their appearance will vary naturally with the season, from fresh growth in spring and leafy or flowering plants in summer to less active or leafless plants later in the year.

If You Can't Plant Straight Away
Keep bare-root roses cool with their roots moist and protected from drying out, and plant as soon as possible. Potted roses can be kept in a sheltered outdoor position and watered as needed until you're ready to plant.

What to Expect After Planting
The roses will gradually develop into bushy plants as they establish, producing more flowering stems and increasingly generous displays as they mature. ‘Birthday Girl’ has the more naturally branched Floribunda habit, while ‘Mum in a Million’ and ‘Silver Anniversary’ develop the upright flowering stems typical of Hybrid Tea roses.

Mature Size
‘Silver Anniversary’ grows to around 75cm high with a 60cm spread, ‘Birthday Girl’ to around 80cm high and 80cm across, while ‘Mum in a Million’ reaches around 90cm high with a 70cm spread. Their relatively similar sizes make the three particularly easy to combine in the same bed or border.