Hybrid Tea Choice Collection

Preparing the Soil for Roses
Roses grow best in fertile, moisture-retentive but well-drained soil. Before planting, dig the soil thoroughly, remove weeds and incorporate plenty of well-rotted garden compost or manure to improve the soil structure and fertility.

Choosing a Position
Choose a sunny position with good air circulation and enough room for each rose to develop. ‘Nostalgia’, ‘Peace’ and ‘Velvet Fragrance’ work particularly well together in a border, where their contrasting flower colours can be enjoyed through summer and into autumn.

Planting Bare-Root Roses
Unpack bare-root roses promptly and soak the roots in a bucket of water for a couple of hours before planting. Dig a generous hole wide enough for the roots to spread naturally without bending or bunching them. Position the rose with the graft union around soil level, backfill with soil, firm gently and water thoroughly.

Planting Potted Roses
Water the rose thoroughly before planting. Dig a hole slightly wider than the root ball, remove the pot and gently loosen any tightly packed roots. Plant at the same depth it was growing in the pot, backfill with soil, firm gently and water well.

Watering
Water regularly during the first growing season, particularly during warm, dry weather. Give the soil a thorough soak so moisture reaches down to the roots rather than watering little and often.

Feeding & Mulching
Apply a rose feed as growth gets underway in spring and again after the first main flush of flowers. Mulch around the base with well-rotted garden compost or organic matter to help conserve moisture, suppress weeds and improve the soil.

Top Tip
If you're replacing an old rose, avoid planting a new rose straight into exactly the same soil. Replace a generous amount of the old soil with fresh soil enriched with organic matter to give the new plants a better start.

Pruning Hybrid Tea Roses
Prune in late winter or early spring, beginning by removing dead, damaged, weak or crossing stems. Shorten the remaining healthy growth to encourage strong new shoots from lower down the plant and maintain an open, balanced framework.

Encouraging Strong Flowering Stems
Hybrid Tea roses produce their best flowers on vigorous new growth, so established plants benefit from a good annual prune rather than simply having their tips trimmed. This encourages the sturdy stems that carry their large summer flowers.

Deadheading
Remove faded flowers regularly through summer to encourage further flushes of bloom. Cut the spent flower stem back to a strong, healthy leaf rather than simply removing the old flower head.

Keeping Roses Healthy
Remove fallen leaves and unhealthy foliage from around the plants and keep the surrounding area free from weeds. Remove congested or crossing growth when pruning to maintain good airflow through the plants.

Top Tip
When cutting roses for a vase, use clean, sharp secateurs and avoid taking too much stem and foliage from a young plant. Once the roses are well established, you'll have more strong flowering stems to choose from each summer.

Work With the Colours
These three roses give you very different colours to work with: the creamy white and cherry red of ‘Nostalgia’, soft yellow blushed with pink from ‘Peace’ and the rich crimson flowers of ‘Velvet Fragrance’. Blues, purples and soft mauves make particularly good companions and help bring the three colours together.

Perennial Planting Partners
Nepeta, hardy geraniums and salvias are excellent lower-growing companions, while veronicas add upright flower spikes between the roses. Allow enough space around the base of each rose for good airflow and easy access for feeding and pruning.

Add Earlier Colour
Spring bulbs such as tulips and alliums can provide colour between the roses before their main flowering season begins. As the bulb foliage fades, the roses and surrounding summer perennials take over the display.

Grow Some for Cutting
The strong stems and large flowers of Hybrid Tea roses make them particularly good for cutting. If you have the space, grow the three roses together in a sunny part of the garden and you'll have three very different colours to choose from for summer arrangements.

Top Tip
Repeat the same companion plants around all three roses rather than giving each rose a completely different planting scheme. It helps the contrasting flower colours feel like one considered display.

Your Roses – Hybrid Tea
‘Nostalgia’, ‘Peace’ and ‘Velvet Fragrance’ are Hybrid Tea roses, chosen for their large, beautifully formed flowers and strong flowering stems. ‘Nostalgia’ stands out for its unusual cream and cherry-red colouring, ‘Peace’ is a much-loved classic with soft yellow flowers flushed and edged with pink, while ‘Velvet Fragrance’ combines rich crimson blooms with a particularly strong fragrance.

Other Types of Rose

Floribunda Roses
Floribunda roses produce their flowers in generous clusters, creating plenty of colour over a long period. They usually have a bushy habit and repeat flower through summer, making them excellent choices for beds, borders and larger containers.

Shrub Roses
Shrub roses develop into naturally shaped bushes and are particularly useful for adding height and structure to borders. Their flowers vary from simple open blooms to large, fully double roses, depending on the variety.

Climbing Roses
Climbing roses produce long flowering stems that can be trained over walls, fences, arches and other supports. They don't cling by themselves, so their stems need to be tied to a suitable support as they grow.

Rambling Roses
Rambling roses generally produce longer, more flexible stems than climbing roses and are excellent for covering larger structures, pergolas and mature trees. Many produce impressive displays of smaller flowers carried in generous clusters.

Ground Cover Roses
Ground cover roses have a low, spreading habit, making them useful towards the front of borders and for covering banks, slopes and larger areas. Planted in groups, they can create a broad carpet of flowers while helping to cover bare ground.

Flower Carpet Roses
Flower Carpet roses are a range of ground cover roses bred for their spreading habit, long flowering season and good garden performance. They're particularly useful for creating low-maintenance colour in borders, banks and larger planting schemes.

Persica Roses
Persica roses are instantly recognisable by the contrasting eye at the centre of their flowers, a characteristic inherited from Rosa persica. Modern varieties combine this unusual colouring with repeat flowering and strong garden performance.

Bare-Root Roses
Bare-root roses are supplied dormant without a pot or compost. Once planted, they will establish their roots and begin producing fresh growth as temperatures rise in spring.

Potted Roses
Potted roses are supplied established in compost with a developed root system. Their appearance naturally varies through the year, so the amount of foliage, buds or flowers present will depend on the season.

If You Can't Plant Straight Away
Keep bare-root roses cool and don't allow the roots to dry out. If planting has to be delayed, heel the roots temporarily into moist soil or compost until you're ready to plant. Keep potted roses watered until they can be planted.

Mature Plant Sizes
‘Nostalgia’ develops into an upright plant around 80–120cm high with a spread of approximately 60–90cm. ‘Peace’ forms a substantial bush around 90–120cm high and wide, while ‘Velvet Fragrance’ grows to around 90cm high with a spread of approximately 60cm.

Growing On
Once planted, your roses will establish their roots and begin putting on strong new growth. As they mature, the plants will become fuller and produce more flowering stems, giving you plenty of large Hybrid Tea blooms to enjoy in the garden and cut for the house.