Roses are a firm favourite for many people, undoubtedly beautiful and often unrivalled in scent. With so many species to choose from, there truly is a rose (or two!) for everyone.
As we head into November, it is an excellent time to add roses to your garden. This is because it’s bare root season. This means that from now until the new year, you will be able to buy roses unpotted, with no soil but just bare roots – as the name suggests! This is both more economical and more sustainable as there’s no soil or pot. You just need to soak the rose roots for a few hours and then plant them, following the supplier’s guidance on planting depth and method.
Here are some of our favourites to help inspire you, and maybe narrow down your search list! We have specifically chosen multiple roses that have benefits for pollinators. Many of the roses with double flowers – those with lots of layers of tightly packed petals – can’t be used by pollinators as they just cannot reach their stamen through all of the petals. So, as beautiful as they are, we are leaving that type of rose off our list in favour of recommending those roses that are good for people and pollinators!
This is a real champion of a repeat-flowering rose with beautiful coral-pink flowers in the summer and orange hips through winter. It is one of the largest roses reaching a shrub size of 6 foot high by 5 foot wide (1.8m by 1.5m), with large, truly single, open flowers too giving great access for pollinators! It grows in full sun and partial shade and has a delicate musk fragrance. We would use this rose towards the back of the border, in a mixed border or in a wilder planted area.
This light pink rose has a truly beautiful scent that will percolate through a garden when the sun is shining. It is a medium sized, repeat-flowering shrub rose, reaching a size of 4 foot by 4 foot (1.2m by 1.2m). It has medium sized blooms with ruffly petals opening to reveal a yellowy centre. It grows in both full sun and partial shade so is versatile too. We would plant this rose in the middle of a mixed border though it would also be happy in a good sized pot.
This rose flowers with masses of delicate, small white flowers in cloud-like heads. It is a medium shrub reaching at least 4 foot by 4 foot (1.2m by 1.2m) and has almost no thorns making it a particularly attractive option to plant near walkways or seating areas. It also grows well in full sun or partial shade and flowers almost continuously from early summer to autumn. It works well in white garden schemes, but also has an apricot bud for an elegant hint of colour. We would plant a succession of this rose in a border along a pathway, or through the middle of a mixed border.
Tottering by gently has a very beautiful, delicate pale yellow single flower. Again, it is a medium shrub rose reaching around 4 foot by 4 foot (1.2m by 1.2m) and has a light musk fragrance. We love using the pale lemon flowers to compliment lilac and light purple planting schemes and add some contrasting colour and brighter pops throughout the border. It grows well in full sun and partial shade, and has the added bonus of producing rose hips too.
We love this rose as a climber. It has a pure white flower with multiple petals that flowers in clusters giving a full and impactful appearance. It is a fast grower, reaching around 15 foot (4.6m) and can be trained relatively easily to grow on walls, fences, around obelisks or over arches and pergolas. We have planted four against the side of a large shed in this garden pictured. It has a light fragrance so we like to plant this near seating areas.
This light pink shrub rose has multi-layered flowers which are shallow and cup-like meaning pollinators can still benefit from them. It is best planted in full sun. Reaching at least 4 foot by 4.5 foot (1.2m by 1.4m), it is a slightly wider shrub rose than average, with large flower heads too. It has a strong fragrance and works well as a cut flower. We enjoy using this rose in mixed borders and in gardens where subtle additions of colour are appreciated as the leaves start off with a gentle tinge of red.
This dark purple rose has a beautiful, sweet fragrance and works well in gardens with lots of greens or with darker colour schemes. The flowers fade with time to a more powdery mauve colour. It flowers with multiple, medium sized flowers and can be quite a tall and narrow shrub rose reaching 4.5 foot by 3 foot (1.4m by 0.9m). It grows best in full sun and will flower prolifically from early summer when deadheaded regularly.
So there you have it! Seven of our favourite roses. We hope this has helped narrow down some choices for you that are beautiful additions to the garden for both us and our pollinators.
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