This response has helped to balance the scales between people wanting to have low maintenance gardens, but also to have some flamboyant colour and scent in the garden as well.
There are some stunning varieties that have been developed that are not only colourful, but are highly fragrant and healthy growers.
Roses come in a number of forms including, the well known 'regular' or bush rose, standard roses (two common main stem heights are 800mm and 450mm and less commonly 1.8m) and climbing varieties.
Whether grown en masse or singly to heighten the profusion of a mixed planting, roses epitomise the glory of the garden on a summers day. Be inspired to grow some roses in your garden. If you are limited on space then growing in pots is a good way to ensure some bright colour on the patio for summer.
Roses today come in virtually every colour of the spectrum. Most rose's co-ordinate well together but a combination of too many brilliant colours may create a discordant effect.
When planting, using white roses or those with soft pastel tones between your groups of strong coloured roses will prevent a clash of colour.
A New Release that has arrived into store this week is 'Strawberry Blonde'. Bred by master rose breeder and grower Rob Somerfield, this beautiful floribunda bears masses of golden apricot blooms that soften with age.
The flowers have a very good form and a delicious fragrance. The foliage is extremely dark – attractive in its own right and provides a wonderful contrast to the gorgeous blooms.
Like other Somerfield varieties it has great habit, medium in growth with a slightly spreading nature. This rose is a beauty.
A particular favourite is 'Absolutely Fabulous'. This rose displays good vigour and excellent health with good resistance to black spot. Its flowers are truly stunning with butter gold blooms, and a delicious strong fragrance.
Rose 'Purpleicious' is another recently released rose that has become very popular and is a good performer in the garden.
This beauty is a deep purple with a delicious fragrance. It has a flat old fashioned flower form and grows approximately 80cm.
A new release last year was Rose 'Scent By An Angel'. It features blooms with a heavy perfume that are deep magenta pink in colour that pale to a soft pink.
It is a floribunda type rose produces masses of flowers in clusters for months through out summer.
A climbing rose that is a favourite of many is 'Dublin Bay'. This was selected by well known international rose breeder Sam McGredy and named after the bays of Ireland.
It is such a good performer it is rated as the number one climbing rose by the NZ rose society frequently with nearly double the votes of the next best rose.
Its blooms are a very brilliant semi double with bright red blooms. It can grow up to 2-3 metres across but while it is a good grower, it is not so vigorous that it can't be contained and kept smaller when needed.
It performs well grown up a trellis, pillar, wall or pergola.
Dublin Bay looks particularly good when under planted with lavender or catmint, where the blue flowers of these plants provide a complementary colour to both the rose blooms and the deep green leaves.
This highly rated rose, 'Dublin Bay' is adaptable to many garden situations.
It can be grown successfully in a decent sized patio planter or half wine barrel. It is a strong and healthy grower with dark green healthy foliage and generally good disease resistance.
Have a great week!
Gareth Carter is General Manager of Springvale Garden Centre
