{"id":611962880326,"date":"2025-11-13T14:42:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T14:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ashridgetrees.co.uk\/blogs\/uncategorized\/rose-update\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T08:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:42:20","slug":"rose-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ashridgetrees.co.uk\/blogs\/roses\/rose-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Rose update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year\u2019s pre-Christmas plans to install a gorgeous climbing Bathsheba rose<\/span> in a large pot against the back wall of our house didn\u2019t go according to schedule. But no matter – bare-rooted roses<\/a><\/span> are happy to be planted any time from late autumn to early spring, as long as the soil isn\u2019t frozen or sodden. I think I eventually ordered in February and planted her in early March. There were important pot-based decisions to be made, and you can\u2019t rush these things. In fact, after touring all the local garden centres and DIY stores and finding nothing that made me happy (they were either ridiculously expensive, too small, too garish, the wrong shape, too wide for the space or just plain ugly), I realised I already had just the thing I needed at the bottom of the garden. Once home to a very lovely pear tree (now planted out in the garden and tripled in size), the perfect pot for Bathsheba had been left sulking behind an overgrown Euphorbia mellifera for at least two years. <\/span>The container is a large terracotta one, about 60cm by 60cm, with beautiful old-fashioned curves and a light, gracefully ageing bloom of algae. I know: a pot isn\u2019t the best place for a rose. But I\u2019m stubborn and there\u2019s no other way to achieve the view through the French doors that I\u2019m after \u2013 one dripping with heavy clusters of fat, perfumed apricot roses. Roses are hungry, thirsty and will succumb to all kinds of ailments if they\u2019re allowed to dry out. So, because terracotta is annoyingly porous, I lined the pot carefully with a couple of old manure bags. Then I positioned a few broken crocks in the bottom to help with drainage. After shuffling the pot into its final position, I filled it with rich, loam-based compost forked through with well-rotted manure, and made sure when planting the rose that the union between the rootstock and the graft (it\u2019s easy to spot on most rose bushes) sat at exactly the final level of the compost. <\/span>The results so far have been mixed. My rose grew well in spring, putting on plenty of lovely greenery. And then came two buds \u2013 watched over impatiently as they plumped up \u2013 and the first flower in mid-June. And what a beauty: rich coppery apricot at the centre, gradually softening to the most delicate peach and cream; the scent fruity, light and addictive. But after that my rose-scented dreams started to fade. The stems drooped. The buds failed to open. Or they balled up and drooped. Or they opened to a disappointing mucky white. There were signs of blackspot on the leaves. <\/span>\"\"I contacted David Austin for advice, for Bathsheba is a DA rose, and they were brilliantly helpful. I thought I knew a fair bit about growing roses, but they taught me a whole lot more. These were the salient points, which I will be putting rigorously into action for Bathsheba\u2019s second year under my care. <\/span><\/p>\n