The Beechgrove Garden ep.6 2017

A couple of year ago, Chris added some standard weeping roses to the side border of what was then the cutting garden. This week Chris is adding to the collection of roses using the 4 central rectangular beds. First though – some pruning of the now 2 year old weeping standard roses and the reason for leaving the pruning so late is so that the long stems have time to produce some growth and be weighed down so you get an idea of what wood to prune out (where the previous flowers were) and that which is dead diseased or frosted in this case.


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Use sharp clean secateurs so as not to spread disease and take off the tips about 1cm above a good healthy bud, then go through the entire canopy. On the main trunk was a shoot of the root stock – the dog rose, this needs to be taken out as they would become way too vigorous and take over the plant.
Christhen fed them with a specialist rose feed and then watered it in. A layer (2 – 3cm deep) of well-rotted horse manure was then added around the base. In the four beds in the middle of the garden, Chris wanted to show some variation and diversity of types of rose but have a coherent theme.
The centre of beds were planted with species roses to provide height with varieties of ground covers and others to provide a kaleidoscope of colours and scents. The preparation of the beds for new roses is paramount. Roses like free draining soil, but a firm soil and ours was a bit too light and fluffy which would allow root rock, so to make the soil a bit heavier, Chris added well-rotted horse manure to the beds. This was forked in and the beds were tramped over the beds to firm up the soil to give the roots a good firm hold in the soil. To the planting holes he also added seaweed (kelp) meal and mycorrhizal fungi. Chris was planting the roses quite deep so the shoots are coming from ground level, as the current thinking is to plant roses slightly deeper as this will keep the roses in a healthy condition. It is essential in the first few months after planting to keep them really well watered.
At a later date, there will be under planting of herbaceous plants and bulbs to complement. We ordered our plants bare root, which is a cheaper way of adding to your plant collections and here in
Aberdeen we are just about at the end of the bare root season. Elsewhere you may have to buy container raised plants. If you are not ready to plant then you can heel them in to keep the roots as moist as possible. Heel right up to the crown of the plant. The roots will be vulnerable to drying out so keep them moist until you are ready to plant.
Chris featured a few favourite varieties:
A large centrepiece large shrub rose is Roseraie de L’Hay, with a wonderful fragrance. Very large, double flowers of rich crimson-purple with contrasting stamens. A vigorous, dense shrub. Completely reliable.
• Repeat Flowering
• Highly Fragrant
• Ideal for poor soil
A modern English Shrub rose is Munstead Woodc combining the old-fashioned bowl shaped roses with a sweet fragrance and long flowering of the modern rose. Ground cover is Kent, one of the County Series and a really good ground cover rose with double button white blooms. A new floribunda is Burgundy Ice. This is a relatively unusual plant derived from a well known rose called ‘Iceberg’ – This new one has all the vigour of Iceberg but with a burgundy tint.
These roses came from David Austin roses, and the information above is from their catalogue.

The Beechgrove Garden ep.6 2017