{"id":36286,"date":"2024-06-04T12:32:06","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T10:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/299deae7-62f5-411a-bffc-adb89f789119"},"modified":"2024-06-04T13:33:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T11:33:05","slug":"how-to-grow-roses-for-cutting-and-growing-tips-from-expert-rose-growers","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/rss_feed\/how-to-grow-roses-for-cutting-and-growing-tips-from-expert-rose-growers\/","title":{"rendered":"How to grow roses for cutting and growing tips from expert rose growers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victoria and Barney Martin of Stokesay Flowers give their advice on growing roses for cutting. Words: Kendra Wilson, photographs Jason Ingram <\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 04 June 2024 at 10:32 AM<\/p>

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Victoria and Barney Martin took on the lease of a one-acre walled garden at Stokesay Court near Ludlow in Shropshire ten years ago, and have since become known for their luxurious roses<\/a> and cut flowers<\/a>. Described by florist Shane Connolly<\/a> as ‘truly among the best in the UK’, their flowers are grown with passion and flair and without chemicals. Of all the luxurious stems grown at Stokesay Flowers<\/a>, it is roses that are desired the most by customers, including rambling roses, cut by the tumbling branch.<\/p>

You may also like<\/strong><\/p>

Discover the beautiful Stokesay Flowers<\/a><\/li>
How to train roses into creative sculptures<\/a><\/li>
Single flowered roses: choosing the best<\/a><\/li><\/ul>
Experimentation is part of the Stokesay ethos<\/a>, and roses are obtained from many sources, including discount supermarkets. But any that are found to be \u201cunlovely or ungenerous in flower\u201d are soon gone.<\/p>
In a garden that relies on garlic and seaweed spray<\/a> rather than a chemical alternative, the plants need to be naturally healthy, and any that don’t make the cut are dug up and replaced. One exception is the pink and white-striped Rosa<\/em> \u2018Variegata di Bologna\u2019, severely prone to black spot, but tolerated for its decadent beauty.<\/p>
Rosa ‘Tuscany Superb’<\/figcaption><\/figure>Old roses <\/a>are the Martins\u2019 favourites, each one an ode to romance. They love the anticipation, the intense but finite burst of flower. And yet there are many old roses in the garden such as Rosa<\/em> \u2018Madame Alfred Carri\u00e8re\u2019 and R.<\/em> \u2018Buff Beauty\u2019 that keep on going, on and off, into autumn.<\/p>
Here, Victoria and Barney share the best roses for cutting and their tips on growing them \u2013 including a recipe for a garlic and seaweed spray that they swear by for controlling aphids on roses and generally giving the plants a boost.<\/p>
Read more from Victoria and Barney and Stokesay Flowers here. <\/a><\/p>
Looking for other lovely roses? <\/a><\/p>
Top roses for cutting<\/h2>
$\"Rosa$
Rosa ‘Francois Juranville’<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Rosa<\/em> \u2018Fran\u00e7ois Juranville\u2019 <\/strong>Rambler, 1866. A rose that is not too thorny and has pliable stems making it good, as Victoria puts, it \u201cfor twiddling about on the wall\u201d. Some repeat flowering. 7-8m. AGM. RHS H6.<\/p>
$\"Rosa$
Rosa ‘Madame Hardy’<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Rosa<\/em> \u2018Madame Hardy\u2019<\/strong> Large shrub, 1832. A strong grower with many-petalled flowers that have a green eye. Thorny and scented, its growing habit can be opened up by training shoots downwards. 1.5m. AGM. RHS H7.<\/p>
$\"Rosa$
Rosa ‘Tuscany Superb’<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Rosa<\/em> \u2018Tuscany Superb\u2019<\/strong> Small shrub, 1837. A healthy rose that Victoria describes as \u201cbringing a touch of gypsy romance\u201d. Flowers only once and has a short vase life but offers a deep fragrance. 1.2m. AGM. RHS H7.<\/p>
$\"Rosa$
Rosa ‘Prosperity’<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Rosa<\/em> \u2018Prosperity\u2019<\/strong> Large shrub, 1919. A highly fragrant, generous rose with large clusters of small, double, creamy, flowers on arching stems with glossy leaves, from June to November. 1.8m. AGM. RHS H6.<\/p>
$\"Rosa$
Rosa ‘Konigin von Danemark’<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Rosa<\/em> \u2018K\u00f6nigin von D\u00e4nemark\u2019<\/strong> Large shrub, 1816. So beautiful and feminine is this rose, Victoria had to do a double take when she first saw it. Fragrant and vigorous, it has quartered blooms, meaning the petals are tightly overlapping, flattened and arranged like a quatrefoil pattern. 1.5m. AGM. RHS H7.<\/p>
$\"Rosa$
Rosa ‘Buff Beauty’<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Rosa<\/em> \u2018Buff Beauty\u2019<\/strong> Large shrub, 1939. A healthy and gently fragrant rose with rich, soft apricot blooms. Looks lovely on its own or mixed with other colours. Its strong branches are great for large displays. 1.5m. AGM. RHS H6.<\/p>
$\"Rosa$
Rosa ‘Variegata di Bologna’<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Rosa<\/em> ‘Variegata di Bologna\u2019<\/strong> Large shrub, 1869. An extremely fragrant and irresistibly beautiful rose, but prone to black spot. Benefits from rich soil, mulch, good light and air, and a seaweed and garlic solution spray. 1.5m. RHS H5.<\/p>
$\"Rosa$
Rosa ‘Fritz Nobis’<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Rosa<\/em> \u2018Fritz Nobis\u2019<\/strong> Large shrub, 1940. Strong, arching, kinky stems, topped with exquisite, porcelain-like flowers that are a warm, soft, rich pink and have a musk scent. Flowers once. 1.8m. AGM. RHS H7.<\/p>
Victoria and Barney’s tips on growing roses for cutting<\/h2>
$\"Barney$
Barney and Victoria with a backdrop of Rosa ‘Francois Juranville’ growing on the wall, Rosa Queen of Sweden and Rosa ‘Fritz Nobis’ – \u00a9 Jason Ingram<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Choose healthy rose varieties<\/h3>
“Some varieties are more susceptible to blackspot than others,” says Victoria. “Old roses don\u2019t seem to get it, and in my experience the more modern ones often do. “Apart from my favourite Rosa<\/em> ‘Variegata di Bologna\u2019, we just take it out and grow something more healthy. We\u2019re growing Bologna against a wall now and it\u2019s doing much better.”<\/p>
Planting<\/h3>
“We have good, rich soil here. We either add some garden compost or muck to the bottom of the hole when planting, and stir it like a cake. We then mulch with muck.”<\/p>
Mulching<\/h3>
“We mulch throughout the year, especially from autumn to spring. We use grass clippings to suppress weeds and to keep moisture in the soil. We\u2019re addicted to mulch, we love it.”<\/p>
$\"Rosa$
Rosa ‘Konigin von Danemark’<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Grow with airy plants<\/h3>
“We like to grow plants with roses that are small at the bottom and airy at the top. I just love the delicate spires of foxgloves<\/a> with roses. Tellimas work well as they act as a mulch over the soil but are not invasive.”<\/p>
Pruning<\/h3>
“Generally it seems that a good hard prune in late winter works well for most shrub and bush roses, to give us strong long cutting stems. We prune between knee and hip height unless a shrub is specifically being grown for its graceful arching branches, such as Rosa<\/em> \u2018Buff Beauty\u2019. We also pick long arching boughs of rambling roses, so we tend to leave these unpruned in the winter, and just tidy them up to sell in the summer.”<\/p>
Here’s more on pruning roses<\/a><\/p>
Apply an organic garlic and seaweed spray in spring<\/h3>
“We only spray once a year, in late April. Barney laboriously and with great smelliness boils up garlic on the stove, then strains off the juice and mixes it with seaweed liquid (ours comes from The Shropshire Seaweed Company), and the we spray this over the fresh young leaves of all the roses. The garlic repels the aphids that usually appear in May. The seaweed acts like an IV drip, pepping the roses up. Last year we didn\u2019t spray and we had rust, so maybe it does work.”<\/p>
Barney’s garlic and seaweed rose spray recipe<\/strong><\/h2>Take one bulb of garlic and break it into cloves (unpeeled)<\/li>
Boil in one litre of water until infused<\/li>
Strain and decant into bottles or a container (Barney uses wine bottles)<\/li>
Add 300 ml of garlic spray (about a cup full) and 300ml seaweed feed to a 10-litre watering can or knapsack sprayer (this works out at 0.3 per cent which is the rate recommended by Shropshire seaweed company) and spray liberally on rose foliage in late April.<\/li><\/ul>
Find out more<\/h2>
Stokesay Flowers<\/a>Stokesay Court, Onibury, Craven Arms Shropshire SY7 9BD.<\/p>
stokesayflowers.co.uk<\/a><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
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Grow with airy plants<\/h3>“We like to grow plants with roses that are small at the bottom and airy at the top. I just love the delicate spires of foxgloves<\/a> with roses. Tellimas work well as they act as a mulch over the soil but are not invasive.”<\/p>

Barney’s garlic and seaweed rose spray recipe<\/strong><\/h2>Take one bulb of garlic and break it into cloves (unpeeled)<\/li>Boil in one litre of water until infused<\/li>Strain and decant into bottles or a container (Barney uses wine bottles)<\/li>

Grow with airy plants<\/h3>
“We like to grow plants with roses that are small at the bottom and airy at the top. I just love the delicate spires of foxgloves<\/a> with roses. Tellimas work well as they act as a mulch over the soil but are not invasive.”<\/p>