Shrub Rose 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 position with good light and air circulation. ‘Bonica’, ‘Champagne Moment’ and ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ will flower best with plenty of sunshine, but can also be grown in light partial shade.

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 the 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 plant a better start.

Pruning
Prune in late winter or early spring, beginning by removing dead, damaged, weak or crossing stems. These three roses have different natural habits, so don't prune them all in the same way. Keep ‘Bonica’ naturally bushy and spreading, maintain the neat, compact framework of ‘Champagne Moment’ and allow ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ to retain more of its taller, upright growth.

Deadheading
Remove faded flowers regularly through summer to encourage further flushes of bloom. Cut spent flower stems back to a strong, healthy leaf to encourage fresh growth below.

Keeping Roses Healthy
Remove fallen leaves and any unhealthy foliage from around the plants rather than allowing it to build up underneath them. When pruning, remove congested or crossing growth where necessary to maintain an open framework with good airflow.

Refreshing Older Roses
As established plants mature, remove an occasional old or unproductive stem close to the base to encourage fresh replacement growth. Avoid removing too much mature wood in a single year.

Top Tip
Step back occasionally while you're pruning and look at the whole plant. Aim for an open, balanced shape while keeping the natural character of each rose rather than cutting every stem to exactly the same height.

Create a Layered Border
These three roses have noticeably different heights and habits, so use them to create depth through a border. Plant taller ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ towards the middle or back, with the softer, spreading growth of ‘Bonica’ and compact ‘Champagne Moment’ further forward.

Perennial Planting Partners
Nepeta and hardy geraniums make excellent lower-growing companions, while salvias and veronicas add upright flower spikes between the roses. Their blues, purples and soft mauves work particularly well alongside the shell-pink, creamy apricot and violet-purple flowers in this collection.

Add Earlier Colour
Spring bulbs such as tulips and alliums can fill the spaces between roses with colour before the main rose season gets underway. As the bulb foliage begins to fade, the roses and surrounding perennials take over the display.

Top Tip
Repeat a few of the same companion plants around all three roses rather than planting something different beside each one. This helps tie the contrasting rose colours together and gives the border a more established, cohesive look.

Your Roses – Shrub & Floribunda
This collection combines different rose types and growing habits. ‘Bonica’ and ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ are shrub roses, with ‘Bonica’ forming a softer, spreading plant and ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ growing taller and more upright. ‘Champagne Moment’ is a compact Floribunda, producing its flowers in generous clusters.

Other Types of Rose

Hybrid Tea Roses
Hybrid Tea roses are prized for their large, beautifully formed flowers, usually carried individually or in small groups on strong stems. Many are highly fragrant and their strong stems make them particularly good roses for cutting.

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. They may look quite bare when they arrive, but this is completely normal. Once planted, they will 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
‘Champagne Moment’ is the most compact of the three, reaching around 60cm high and wide. ‘Bonica’ forms a broader, spreading plant around 80–90cm high and across, while ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ is the tallest, developing an upright plant around 1.2–1.5m high.

Growing On
Once planted, your roses will establish their roots and begin putting on fresh growth. As they mature, the plants will become fuller and more established, ready to produce generous displays of flowers each season.