Roses for every garden

There’s something special about roses. With their beautiful flowers and their delectable fragrance, they add glamour and elegance to any garden. As well as looking gorgeous, roses are surprisingly tough and can cope with a wide range of conditions. Here are a few of our favourite roses for different situations.

Best roses for shady spots

Roses generally do best in sun, but many will grow in partial shade, provided they get at least 4 hours of sun per day.

Rose ‘Claire Austin’ AGM is a climbing rose producing masses of lemon-yellow buds that open into creamy white flowers with a strong myrrh scent. Reaching a height of 3.75m (12ft), this strong, healthy rose looks lovely trained against a wall or fence.
Rose ‘Scarborough Fair’ AGM flowers prolifically through summer, producing clusters of the most beautiful soft pink semi-double flowers with a musky Old Rose scent. It’s strong, healthy and reliable.
Rose ‘Kew Gardens’ AGM is a charming shrub rose producing large clusters of single white flowers with golden stamens. The flowers open from pale apricot buds and are followed by red hips, giving a long season of interest. This compact, bushy rose makes a lovely informal hedge.

Rose ‘Scarborough Fair

Best roses for pots

You don’t need a big garden to grow roses – patio roses have been specially bred to grow well in containers. Choose a pot at least 30cm diameter x 40cm deep and fill it with a loam-based compost such as John Innes no 3. Water regularly in spring and summer, and apply a granular rose fertiliser in spring.

Rose ‘Sweet Dream’ AGM is a patio rose with clusters of lightly scented peach-pink double flowers in summer and autumn. It’s exceptionally floriferous and one of the most popular choices for container growing.
Rose ‘Ballerina’ is a small shrub rose with big flower power! It flowers all summer, producing large sprays of pink and white flowers in round clusters that look rather like hydrangea flowerheads. It grows well in containers and will even cope with partial shade.

Best roses for scent

When you think of roses, you think of fragrance, and here are three of our top picks for scent:

Rose ‘Arthur Bell’ AGM is a stunning floribunda rose, producing clusters of spectacular golden-yellow flowers. Named after the founder of Bell’s whisky, ‘Arthur Bell’ has a scent that will go straight to your head!
Rose ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ AGM starts flowering early and carries on all through summer, producing exceptionally beautiful pink double flowers with a delicious Old Rose fragrance. It forms a vigorous, upright shrub, and the flowers are perfect for cutting.
Rose ‘Generous Gardener’ AGM is an elegant climbing rose with clusters of fragrant soft pink double flowers all through summer. Reaching up to 4.5m (15ft) high, it’s ideal for a pergola or over a doorway, and will grow in partial shade.

Rose ‘Arthur Bell’