GARDENING: ROSES BY ANY OTHER NAME.

Continuing our simple guide to rose-growing from last week...

Now that you have got your bare-rooted new rose plants safely home, and soaked them in water for the prescribed length of time, let's move on to the thoroughly enjoyable job of planting them out in the areas and pots you previously prepared.

Dig planting holes of approximately 15 to 18 inches deep and 12 inches across - recommended planting distances will be discussed later in this column - carefully heaping the removed soil on one side.

Next, mix up a bucket of earth and water until the consistency is like that of thick custard and slather this all over the roots of the bushes waiting to be planted out. You can try dipping the roots in the bucket full of goo but may need to resort to dolloping it on by hand. Let this goo set in place for a little while before actually planting the roses.

The reason for doing this is quite simple: it helps to protect the tender, sometimes surprisingly brittle, rose roots from being inadvertently damaged during the planting procedure.

Floribunda - Peach blush

The next step is to gently insert the new plant into its planting hole, carefully spreading its roots out in all directions around the main stem to aid balance and to encourage natural root development. If you just cram the roots into the hole they are liable to suffer damage. Plus, it will be too overcrowded for the new plant - it is already stressed, remember - to survive.

The second part of a simple guide to growing the queen of flowers

Hold the plant firmly in an upright position with one hand and, with the other, trickle the previously removed soil in and around the roots until the hole is about three-quarters full. Do not, at any stage, push or stamp down the soil or root damage is bound to occur.

Instead, when the hole is three-quarters full, pour in enough water - using a watering can to do this, not a pressurised hose - to fill it, allowing the water to soak away before filling up with more soil, almost to the brim and then watering it again.

Once this is done, leave everything to settle in naturally for two or three days and then, without disturbing roots or plants, level off the bed and give it all a good soaking.

Allow the plants a couple of weeks to familiarise themselves with their new surroundings and then - difficult as it may be, especially if the bushes were sold in flower or in bud - they should be pruned back to a height of just six to eight inches.

Floribunda - Orange...

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