How to pick the perfect bush and shrub roses for your garden

Roses have excelled this summer, preferring a climate rather warmer than the usual British summer, while the dryness deterred diseases. Drought does not greatly trouble them either, at least in Britain, although for more “trying” gardens, consider Rosa persica hybrids, currently under trial at Wisley, such as “For Your Eyes Only” (“Cheweyesup” PBR), 90cm, with pink, peach and apricot flowers. (New roses often have a catchy selling name – “For Your Eyes Only”, pictured – and a registered name – “Cheweyesup” – for plant breeders’ rights, or PBR, a sort of botanical patent.) (Photo: RHS/Sarah Cuttle)

Bafflingly diverse

Roses can be bafflingly diverse, but there are colourful ones for all situations except waterlogged or shady spots. Buying bare-rooted plants for delivery from next month is the most economical way to add them to your garden. Bushy roses can be grouped into seven divisions, which include many roses that straddle divisions. (Photo: monkeybusinessimages/Getty)

Modern means post-1860

Hybrid tea roses, formerly the most popular type, are grown for their gorgeous large individual flowers. These bushes grow to 75cm to 120cm. Their ancestor, the scented, repeat-flowering Chinese tea rose (Rosa × odorata), rather than a beverage, accounts for the “tea”. These include “A Whiter Shade of Pale” (“Peafanfare” PBR).Floribunda roses are similar but have clusters of flowers. They range from 60cm to 210cm high. Examples include “Iceberg” (Rosa Iceberg 'Korbin' at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, pictured), white, (1958) and “Blue for You” (“Pejamblu” PBR). It is a rather lovely mauve fading to a greyish colour – as close to blue as you can get in a rose. A more enlightening name, but not always used in catalogues, for hybrid tea and floribunda roses is “modern large-flowered” and “modern cluster-flowered” bush roses respectively. The “modern” means post-1860! Both respond to a severe annual pruning regime, which leads to the abundant, glorious flowering of these bushes. (Photo: RHS/Sarah Cuttle)

Keeping plants to size

Modern shrub roses are currently especially popular, largely due to less formal gardening trends. They include the English shrub roses including “Gertrude Jekyll” (“Ausbord” PBR), 100cm, pink (1985) and, from 2009, salmon-pink 120cm “Lady of Shalott” (“Ausnyson” PBR). Shrub roses grow with long, arching stems and need to be pruned as other shrubs, shortening some shoots and removing others to keep plants to size and shapely with balanced new and mature wood. Older, pre-20th century shrub roses remain wonderful choices. Well-regarded examples include “Roseraie de l’Haÿ” (1861) a 225cm pink-flowered R. rugosa, and “Charles de Mills”, a 150cm gallica rose with closely packed red petals (1786). (Photo: Tim Sandall/RHS)

Patio roses and ground-cover roses

Ground-cover roses are very long-flowering, low, but relatively broad shrubs, with remarkable disease resistance, bearing small, usually single, often scented charming flowers. With a 50cm height and a spread of 100cm, bright red flowers and orange hips, “Pink Flower Carpet” (“Noatraum”) is a typical example. They are especially valued by gardeners seeking low-maintenance plantings, as deadheading is usually impractical and, being small, there is not much to remove during winter pruning. Patio roses, less than 50cm height and spread, are for those who want to garden in smaller spaces, including large containers. They differ from ground-cover roses in being bushy and compact: for example, “Flower Power” (“Frycassia” PBR), with its peach full flowers all summer. Miniature roses, up to 45cm, are sold potted as houseplants but also suit balconies, patios and other limited spaces. They repeat-flower and are just like any other garden rose, only tiny – try dark-red “My Valentine” (“Mormyval”). (Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty)