How to grow roses: a complete step-by-step guide

Growing roses has a reputation for being difficult and it isn't. The rose is a rewarding plant that responds very quickly to three things: sun, air and regular feeding. Give it that and it flowers from late spring until the first frosts and lives for decades — there are hundred-year-old roses in historic gardens. What usually fails isn't "the rose", but a spot with little light, plants too close together that don't get any air, watering that wets the leaves or a total lack of feeding in a plant that is very demanding.

This guide covers the whole rose cycle, from how to choose it at the nursery to the pruning of each winter, taking in step-by-step planting, the watering and feeding calendar, propagation by cutting, the prevention of the three common diseases and what to do with an old rose that has stopped flowering. At the end there's a summary calendar and the most frequently asked questions.

1. Choosing the right rose

Before buying, decide which type fits your garden, the light you have and the time you want to spend on it. These are the main groups:

Shrub or landscape rose

The easiest, and the one we recommend to start. It flowers in abundant clusters, tolerates a certain neglect, resists black spot well and doesn't need technical pruning: cut it back by a third in winter and that's it. Varieties: 'The Fairy', 'Bonica', Knock Out range, 'Ballerina'. Height 60-120 cm.

Floribunda

A middle ground between the shrub and the hybrid tea: abundant clusters of medium flowers, very continuous flowering and good resistance. It needs slightly more careful pruning than the landscape rose but less than the hybrid tea. Varieties: 'Iceberg' (white, practically indestructible), 'Friesia' (yellow and scented).

Hybrid tea

The classic long-stemmed, large-flowered rose for the vase. It's the most demanding: it wants frequent feeding, technical pruning and, depending on the variety, preventive treatments against fungi. If what you want is roses for cutting, it's your group; if you want a garden that flowers on its own, start with another.

Climbing and rambling rose

For pergolas, arches and walls. The climber (repeat flowering all summer) is pruned every year; the rambler (one big flowering in May-June) is barely pruned. Both need a structure to train them on from day one. Climbing varieties: 'Pierre de Ronsard', 'New Dawn', 'Compassion'.

English rose (David Austin) and modern shrub roses

Very double, scented flower with an old-fashioned shape, on more resistant modern plants. A good balance between beauty and health. Today many varieties are selected explicitly for their tolerance to black spot: always look at the label, it says so there.

Bare-root or container

Buy bare-root between November and March: it's cheaper (half or less), establishes better and there's a much wider variety available. Container ones you can plant the rest of the year, but you pay more and the choice is limited. Reject specimens with wrinkled stems, long white shoots from having been in a warehouse without light, or spots and cracks in the bark.

2. Preparing the spot and the soil

The rose needs a minimum of 5-6 hours of direct sun — ideally morning sun, which dries the dew early and reduces fungi — and good air circulation. Avoid:

• Enclosed corners between walls with no ventilation.
• The foot of a large tree, where it will compete for water and light.
• A spot where another rose lived for many years ("soil sickness": the new rose grows badly). If there's no alternative, change 40 × 40 × 40 cm of soil.

The ideal soil is deep, rich in organic matter and well-draining. If your soil is very clay, plant on a slightly raised mound and add compost and coarse sand. If it's very sandy, add plenty of compost so it holds water and nutrients. The ideal pH is between 6 and 7; if your soil is very chalky you'll see chlorosis (yellow leaves with green veins) and you'll have to add iron.

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3. Step-by-step planting

The best time is autumn (October-November) or late winter (February-March), with the plant dormant.

Bare-root rose

1. Rehydrate: submerge all the roots in a bucket of water for 2-3 hours (up to 12 if they came very dry).
2. Planting prune: trim the damaged roots and leave the stems at about 15-20 cm, cutting above an outward-facing bud.
3. Dig a hole of 40 × 40 × 40 cm. Mix the excavated soil with one or two spadefuls of compost or well-rotted manure. Don't put strong mineral fertiliser in contact with the roots: it scorches them.
4. Form a mound of soil at the bottom of the hole and spread the roots over it, spread out like a spider.
5. Set the graft height: the swelling between the root and the stems should be flush with the soil, or 2-3 cm below in areas of hard frost.
6. Fill in two goes, firming with your foot between one and the other so there are no air pockets.
7. Form a basin (a ring of soil around it) and water abundantly, 15-20 litres, even if it has rained. That first watering settles the soil around the roots.
8. Mulch with 5-7 cm of bark or compost, without covering the graft.

Container rose

The same, but with no planting prune. Gently loosen the root ball if the roots were circling, set the graft at the same height it was in the pot and water the same.

Distance between roses: minimum 50 cm between landscape roses, 60-70 cm between hybrid teas and floribundas, 1-1.5 m between large shrub roses. The air circulating between them is the best prevention against fungi.

4. Watering: at the base, in the morning, a lot and spaced out

The rose prefers abundant, spaced-out watering rather than a little every day. A deep watering makes the root go down to look for water and the plant becomes more resistant to heat and to supply cuts.

• Spring: 1-2 times a week depending on rain.
• Summer: 2-3 times a week, 15-20 litres per plant, always in the morning.
• Autumn: reduce to once a week or less.
• Winter: usually not needed.

Never water by spray or wet the leaves at dusk: it's the direct route to black spot. Drip irrigation with one or two drippers per rose solves it without thinking. A mulch of 5-7 cm halves the watering frequency, keeps the root cool and slows weeds; refresh it every spring.

5. Feeding: the rose is a glutton

The rose uses an enormous amount of nutrients because it produces flowers non-stop for six months. Schedule three feeds a year:

Stop feeding from September. A late nitrogen feed causes tender shoots that don't harden before the cold, get frosted and also attract aphids. Magnesium (Epsom salts, a tablespoon dissolved in water) helps if you see yellow leaves between the veins.

Sign of iron chlorosis: young leaves yellow with green veins, typical in chalky soil or with very hard irrigation water. It's corrected in the short term with iron sulphate or iron chelate, and in the long term by acidifying the soil. We cover it in soil pH: why it matters.

6. Pruning, type by type

You prune in late winter, when hard frosts are no longer expected and the buds start to swell (between February and March in most of Spain; later in cold inland areas). Tool: well-sharpened bypass secateurs disinfected with alcohol, and for thick stems two-handed pruners or a pruning saw. Always cut at an angle, about 5 mm above an outward-facing bud, so the new branch grows outwards and the centre stays open.

Aims of any rose pruning

• Remove dead, diseased wood and the thin stems that won't give a good flower.
• Remove stems that cross and rub in the centre.
• Open the centre of the plant so light and air get in (fewer fungi).
• Renew: favour the young, vigorous stems over the old, exhausted wood.

Shrub and landscape rose

The easiest: reduce the whole plant to a third or half its size, even with a hedge trimmer if you have a lot. Remove what's dead and what crosses. It's almost impossible to do it wrong.

Floribunda

Leave 5-7 well-spread young stems and cut them to 30-40 cm. Remove the rest and wood more than 3 years old.

Hybrid tea

More severe pruning: leave only 3-5 vigorous stems, well opened in a cup shape, and cut them to 15-25 cm from the ground (shorter = fewer flowers but bigger). Remove all the old, dark wood and the thin stems.

Climber

Don't shorten it in height. The key is to train the main stems horizontally or in a fan: a stem laid flat flowers along its whole length, while a vertical one flowers only at the tip. Each winter, cut the side stems that have already flowered leaving them at 2-3 buds, and replace an old main stem with a new one. Tie with a soft material that doesn't strangle.

Rambler

Barely pruned. After its big flowering in May-June, remove the odd very old stem from the base to renew and that's it.

Throughout the season: remove the faded flowers by cutting above the first complete five-leaflet leaf that faces outwards. That's what triggers the new flowering. From October, leave the last flowers uncut if you want them to form hips (pretty in winter and food for the birds).

7. Propagating roses by cutting

Almost all shrub, landscape and climbing roses propagate easily by cutting (grafted hybrid teas, less well). Simple method:

1. In October-November, cut pieces of the current year's stem, pencil-thick and about 20-25 cm long, just below a bud at the bottom and above another at the top.
2. Remove all the leaves except the top two.
3. Optional: dip the base in rooting hormone.
4. Bury them two thirds in a protected area of the garden or in a pot with sandy growing medium, leaving two buds out.
5. Keep moist (without waterlogging) all winter and spring. In summer, many will have rooted; transplant them the following autumn.

The success rate with this method is around 40-70% depending on the variety, so plant more cuttings than you need.

8. Rose pests and how to control them

The detail of each treatment is in common pests and natural solutions and the most effective organic pesticides.

9. Rose diseases: prevention is 90%

Remember that sulphur and copper are preventive contact products: they create a barrier on the healthy leaf, they don't cure the diseased one. They have to be applied before infection or at the first symptom, and repeated after every rain. All the detail is in fungi on plants.

10. Winter protection and roses in pots

Most garden roses take the cold well once rooted. In areas with frosts below -10 °C, mound up the base with 15-20 cm of soil or compost in November and remove it in March, and protect the graft of standard roses with a handful of straw or a mesh.

In a pot: a container of at least 40 cm deep, quality growing medium, drip irrigation and more frequent feeding (every 3-4 weeks in season, because watering washes out the nutrients). In winter, group the pots against a south wall and, if there's hard frost, wrap the pot (not the plant) with bubble wrap to protect the roots.

11. Summary rose calendar

• December - January: bare-root planting. Propagation by cutting.
• February - March: formative pruning. First organic feed. Refresh the mulch. First preventive treatment with sulphur at bud break.
• April - May: second feed (specific mineral). Watch for aphids and powdery mildew. First flowering.
• June - July: continuous removal of faded flowers. Third feed after the first wave. Deep watering at the base in the morning.
• August: keep watering. Watch for spider mite and thrips.
• September - October: second big flowering. Stop feeding. Reduce watering.
• November: collect all fallen leaves. Mound up in cold areas. Leave the last flowers for hips.

Frequently asked questions

Can I have roses in pots on a balcony?

Yes, successfully, if the balcony gets at least 5 hours of sun. Use containers 40 cm or more deep, quality growing medium, drip irrigation and feeding every 3-4 weeks in season. Landscape and miniature roses adapt best.

My rose has lots of leaves but few flowers, why?

The three most common causes: lack of sun (it needs 5-6 direct hours), excess nitrogen (switch to a potassium-rich fertiliser) or lack of pruning (an unpruned rose builds up old wood that no longer flowers well). Also check there isn't a rootstock sucker dominating the plant.

What are suckers and what do I do with them?

They're shoots that grow below the graft point, directly from the wild rootstock. They have different leaves (often smaller and with seven leaflets) and poor flowers. You have to pull them out at the root by tugging them, not cut them: if you cut them, they resprout stronger and end up smothering the grafted variety.

How many years does a rose live?

With basic care, between 20 and 35 years; many old roses pass the century. If one declines a lot despite pruning and feeding, sometimes it's soil sickness: pull it up and plant the new one somewhere else, or change 40 cm of soil in all directions.

Can you prune a rose in autumn?

Only a light clean-up prune: remove broken or diseased branches and shorten the longest stems by a third so the winter wind doesn't shake the plant and loosen the roots. Formative pruning, which defines the plant for the year, is always done in late winter.

How often do you need to water a newly planted rose?

The first two months, 2-3 times a week with 10-15 litres each time, even if it rains little, so it establishes. From the second year, by season: 1-2 times a week in spring and autumn, 2-3 in summer, always at the base and in the morning.

Can I plant a rose where another one was?

Better not directly: "rose replant sickness" makes the new one grow weak the first years even if the previous one was healthy. If there's no alternative, remove and replace a large bucket of soil (40 × 40 × 40 cm) with fresh soil and compost.

Which rose do you recommend if I don't want complications?

A disease-resistant landscape rose: 'The Fairy', 'Bonica', 'Iceberg' (floribunda) or the Knock Out range. A single pass of pruning in winter, one feed in spring, watering at the base and they flower from May to November with almost no attention.