There’s always space for one more in the garden!
Every garden has room for one more rose and few shrubs provide so much colour and beauty. They are often confined to their own beds but they can be incorporated into a mixed border among other shrubs and flowers. It’s too late to plant bareroot roses but garden centres are full of potted roses that can be planted now.
Most roses grow and flower best in a sunny spot; they need sun for at least half the day. Roses like a rich soil; a heavy soil is perfect if improved with some compost. Light soils also need organic material added. It’s best not to plant roses in beds that already contain roses but if you have to do this you can improve your chances of success by adding add some RootGrow to the planting hole when you plant, making sure it’s in contact with the roots.
Take care when removing the plant from the pot. Most roses are field-grown and only potted in autumn or winter so they won’t have the dense rootballs of most potted shrubs. The compost may fall off the roots; not good for growth. Water the newly planted rose immediately to help it establish. Single-flowered roses are a good choice in shrub borders and are magnets for bees, so I chose ‘Tottering-by-Gently’, with pale yellow flowers all summer, for their benefit. I’m sure the bees will thank me!
STEP BY STEP
1Ensure rootball is thoroughly wet before planting. Soak the pot in abucket of water for aminimum of two hours.
2Garden centre plants are often not properly pruned, so check yours and prune out any weak and dead shoots.
3Prepare soil: fork in organic matter, mix it in and remove perennial weeds. Plant slightly deeper than in the pot.
4Firm soil gently, mulch with compost, sprinkle on rose fertiliser, water and keep watering until established.
Prune early clematis
Early-flowering clematis can be given a tidy-up after blooming. As the saying goes, ‘if it flowers before June don’t prune’, so just a light trim will suffice by deadheading spent flowers and removing any winter-damaged stems. Early-flowering varieties include C. cirrhosa balearica, whose creamy-coloured, bell-like flowerheads drip from evergreen foliage, deciduous C. alpina, C. montana and evergreen C. armandii; all are a great nectar source for early bumblebees. These group one clematis flower on the previous season’s wood but if a plant needs rejuvenating, a hard prune may be necessary. This will sacrifice blooms the following year but they will return.
Weed invasive euphorbia
You’ve probably got loads of it in your garden – Euphorbia peplus, or petty spurge, as it’s commonly called, explodes in borders i
