Three golden rules to prolong flowering
If you treat them correctly, the best late-flowering roses will keep flowering after the first frosts. Here are five from David Austin Roses.
There are three golden rules to follow:
1. Choose repeat-flowering varieties.
2. Keep dead-heading to promote new flowers.
3. Feed with a rose fertiliser in spring and summer to give them the energy to keep on flowering. Read more about the best roses for semi-shade.
The best late-flowering roses – Desdemona
My favourite white rose. It’s an English shrub rose with a very long flowering season and a strong fragrance. Its peachy-pink buds open to reveal beautiful, pure white blooms, with an attractive hint of pink at the earliest stage of flowering.
Olivia Rose Austin
This English shrub rose is an excellent all-rounder with rosette blooms. The shallowly cupped, soft pink rosettes have a strong, fruity fragrance. Good for disease resistance.
The best late-flowering roses – Lady of Shalott
An all-time favourite, very hardy and reliable on poor soils or for beginners. Striking apricot-yellow, chalice-shaped blooms with a medium-strength fragrance. RHS Award of Garden Merit.
England’s Rose
An English shrub rose with almost continuous large clusters of flowers. Deep, glowing pink flowers with a strong, spicy Old Rose fragrance. Very healthy and rain-resistant, good for disease resistance and beginners.
The best late-flowering roses – Roald Dahl
An English shrub rose with very free-flowering peach blooms, produced almost continuously. Orange-red buds open to cupped peach rosettes with a tea fragrance. £2.50 from the sale of each rose will be donated to Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity.
Read more on interesting David Austin literary roses and my rose-growing tips page. Bare-root roses are available to order now, with delivery in November. For more information, visit www.davidaustinroses.co.uk.
