Introduction: My Rose Growing Story

If you want to grow roses as cut flowers on a relatively small scale, but aren’t sure how to do it to get the best results, this course is written for you. It uses my experiences of growing roses as cut flowers over the past 9 years.

On a serious note

I'm very happy for you to use, reuse and annotate the learning materials produced for in this course for your own individual use. However, please respect the time, energy and experience that has gone into creating this course and don’t copy any of the content or materials for other people or for use in your own workshops. The course and all its materials are protected by copyright and remain the intellectual property of The Business of Selling Flowers. You must not, under any circumstances reproduce any part of this course without our prior written permission.  Thank you!

My Rose Growing Story

When I first started growing roses the only resources I could find were for growing roses for gardens and they didn’t work well for a small scale flower farmer in the northern UK. It took a number of years and lots of experimentation to be able to produce high quality roses for sale .

Once I’d decided to grow roses for cutting, I bought good stock from a well regarded nursery. I planted them in a sunny open site, in deep rich soil, manured them well and waited.
There is a common saying about rose bushes:

“First they sleep
Then they creep
Then they leap”

Meaning that they take three years to properly produce flowers, so shouldn’t be cut until their third year. I followed the advice and waited. I was ready for the leaping, snips poised, customers lined up and nothing happened. The roses I had so carefully nurtured and cosseted bloomed poorly, the flowers were sad and battered, rain speckled and meagre. I really couldn’t believe it.

I sold a few but wasn’t confident about them and when I was delivering to a regular florist customer she asked if there was anything special she should be doing to condition the roses I was supplying, as she was having problems with them shattering. I was absolutely horrified, though she was at pains to say it wasn’t a complaint. She clearly was concerned about mentioning any problems, but I was so grateful for the feedback as it helped me to become so much better at growing roses as cut flowers. I immediately stopped listing roses as available and set about testing them, cutting at different points, cutting in different ways, storing and transporting. They were still poor.

I decided that drastic action was required, I had to move them under cover to see if that helped or get rid of them. I cut them back, dug them all up and moved them into the middle of our polytunnel. There wasn’t a lot of space so they were planted quite closely together. I mulched and fed them and crossed my fingers.

The following spring, they started to grow and it was a revelation. Strong stems, glossy foliage, big fat buds. Then flowers – big, frilly, clean, scented blooms that cut well, lasted well and sold like crazy.

I looked really carefully at what I’d done differently and analysed the changes. This course is the result of that learning.

Why should you grow roses as cut flowers?

Roses cut and ready to arrange

Roses are seen by many as the perfect cut flower. They are now grown and sold in their millions, mostly in Africa and South America, and flown all around the world for use in bouquets on all continents. Over time, the ‘rose’ that is sold as a cut flower has changed almost beyond recognition. To cope with mechanisation, time spent in transit and delay in reaching the end user, the roses that are sold by wholesalers are uniform in appearance and scentless. They are very readily available and reasonably priced.

When I first started growing cut flowers, the advice given by those already in the business in the UK was to avoid growing what a florist can get hold of easily, that is roses, lilies, alstromeria, etc. So I didn’t plant roses in the first year. Well, only a couple anyway.

The whole of my first year of growing I was asked for roses. When I suggested that they were easily available from florists and supermarkets, faces were pulled and the response was always ‘Yes, but they aren’t proper roses’. And so, I planted roses.

What Roses offer to the Flower Farmer and Florist

Shape

When creating a bouquet or floral arrangement, there is an expectation that there will be round or focal flowers. They take up space in the bouquet, provide a focus for attention and the WOW factor. Roses do all of this and more. In temperate climates, they also do it for a long period, often blooming from May through to October, with repeated ‘flushes’ of flowers.

Colour

There is a huge colour range in roses, from white to deep burgundy and every shade in between. One of their strengths is that they provide a range of shades in each colour, so an orange rose can be anything from pale apricot through to deep chocolate. Rose breeders work continually to add new colours, such as blues, browns and greys.

Scent

It’s hard to describe the scent of a rose, and each one is different. If you offer someone a rose to look at, the first thing they do without fail is smell it, even before they look at the colour or shape. Scent is the element of the flower that has generally been lost in the effort to make roses that can travel the world, so it’s an essential requirement for locally grown roses. The strength and type of scent can vary greatly, but I haven’t ever smelled a rose that was unpleasant.  

Memories

When I was a child, we had a very small suburban garden with a few rose bushes. One of my favourite pastimes was to collect rose petals and make them into ‘perfume’ by soaking them in a jar of water. It certainly didn’t smell great after a couple of hours in the sunshine, but it remains a very happy memory. Many people have good memories of roses that link them to loved ones, childhood and special occasions and these can provide motivation in seeking out locally grown roses as part of creating their own events and memories.

Movement

I’ve asked florists why they prefer the roses I grow to ones they can buy through a wholesaler and one of the things they always say (apart from the scent) is that they have movement. Roses that are grown so that they fit neatly into boxes or upright in buckets for storage and transport can be very stiff. It can be challenging to create a natural arrangement with stems that are very straight. A rose that has a curve in its stem, that has been allowed to wander or bend can suggest the whole shape of an arrangement and give the impression of movement.

Demand

It’s very common to get an enquiry from a florist that starts with ‘I’m looking for roses…’

Brides are reassured by roses, they seem to think it makes us a real flower farm! Although we also grow lots of other flowers, roses can be the start of the conversation. They are the lure that brings in repeat business. When they are a possibility, they bring other orders with them across a season from May to October. We sell most of our roses, only a few are deadheaded for confetti and if I have roses in the house it’s a very unusual day.

Profit

Roses can be a very profitable crop. Although they do take time and care to achieve good quality, they fetch a consistently good price and produce a high yield per plant. This season, we have cut over 200 stems of roses from just 80 indoor plants, selling at £1.80 each wholesale. That’s a minimum of £3600 from a crop that takes up very little space, is already in the ground, paid for many years ago and requiring minimal financial outlay from year to year.

What are they good for?

If you’re going to grow roses for sale as cut flowers, you need to think carefully about their end use and whether you’ll have a market for your carefully grown blooms:

Weddings and Events - although occasionally there will be a request for no roses, it’s very unusual. Home grown roses are often specifically requested for the bride’s bouquets, even if there are just a few, to give scent and a luxurious feel. For weddings and events the flowers need to look fabulous on the day, at their very best, so if they don’t last weeks it’s not an issue.

Special bouquets- more expensive bouquets tend to contain roses as they’re an indicator of luxury and expense. In gift bouquets for special occasions and presentations it can be lovely to add roses, but there is a dilemma as they are most beautiful when fully open and will give the wow effect, but they don’t last very long at that stage.

Funeral flowers - Funeral flowers can also be included under event/special bouquets. The association of roses with memories can give them a particular poignancy at times of loss and provide comfort to the bereaved. The scent of flowers at a difficult time can be helpful in providing a focus for thoughts.

Edible flowers - Roses are edible flowers, they are added to puddings and used as decoration and flavouring. However, flowers generally aren’t grown as foodstuff and don’t come under the same regulations as food so imported roses can be treated with a number of chemicals that aren’t safe for human consumption. There is a growing market for roses that are suitable for food use and compliant with the relevant regulation.

Dried flowers and confetti - roses dry well, keep their shape and hold their petals well. Blooms that are too open for selling can be deadheaded and used as fresh or dried petal confetti.

Less good for

Cafés and shops - If you supply flowers to commercial premises, it’s unlikely that roses will last long enough in the vase to be useful. They would have to be cut in bud to last long enough to be economic, and their change in shape and size provides challenges in creating an arrangement that remains looking good over a longer period. Cafes and shops, and particularly businesses such as hairdressers, are usually very warm and the atmosphere doesn’t lend itself to good flower life.

Market and Shop Bunches - Although some customers will love roses in a mixed bunch of flowers, they will often last a few days less than the other ‘members’ of the bouquet or bunch. If it’s clear at the outset, that may be OK, but most customers will expect their flowers to last a week or so. If I’m selling roses as bouquets or bunches I usually sell them as a ‘special’ with additional information on care and vase life.

Pick your own - When I first wrote this course I said that there’s no way I’d let members of the public cut my roses. However, in 2020, with the collapse of wedding and wholesale orders, there were roses aplenty and Cut Your Own customers were given free reign across the whole flower farm. The roses were cut and there was no issue, in fact they weren’t cut enough, I still had to go around and deadhead. Those who snipped the roses have been back in the following years for more!

Buckets of roses ready for a florist to collect

Choosing Roses for Cutting

There are a number of different forms and shapes of rose plant, all with differing uses for cut flowers:

Bush – large spreading plants with lots of clusters of blooms. They often have quite lax, arching stems and need support to enable easy access and care. They can take up a lot of space.

Hybrid Tea -  generally a single large bloom on each stem. The flowers are often large and full but there are fewer chances to get a good cut stem. If the single flower blooms on a Monday when you need it on Thursday it’s not much good and will just have to be deadheaded.

Floribunda – smaller bushes with blooms in clusters. Hardy and robust varieties that are bred for a long season of flowers. They can be useful as they offer more than one chance to cut a stem. A flower can be snipped off to allow others in the cluster to bloom at the right time.

Climber – can be a climbing version of a hybrid tea, or specific varieties with long stems. Climbers can be very productive, make use of existing fences and walls and can be a good space saver.

Rambler – vigorous plants with blooms generally in clusters. The need a lot of space to spread, plus good support. Ramblers can give a totally different cut stem that is sought after for large scale installations.

Some roses flower all season in a series of ‘flushes’. Others have one burst of blooms and then that’s it until next year. If you’re growing for sale you should grow repeat flowering plants, you’ll get more blooms for your time, effort and space and they give a longer season for selling.        

GARDEN PLANTS VS CUT FLOWERS

It’s important to recognise the differences between growing garden roses and growing roses for cut flowers. The approach to choosing, planting and pruning is very different and although it is possible to cut roses grown as garden plants, they will take more time, space and effort to achieve good cut stems. The following is an explanation of the differences in approach, it’s not intended to be critical of gardeners but this is what those I’ve asked have very honestly told me about their rose care.

Above are photos of roses planted outside for cut flowers (left) and in a garden setting (right)

Rose Varieties

I’ve tried a range of varieties, some have done well, some less so, some are lovely in the garden but don’t cut well. The roses on the list below have been tried and tested here over a number of seasons. We’re adding to the rose selection all the time, but it takes two full seasons or more to really be confident that they will perform well. There aren’t many that are bright, as unfortunately we find our orders are more usually for paler colours.

The roses in the attached list have been tried and tested as cut flowers on our clay soil in the Scottish Borders. There will be more varieties that make the grade but these are the ones I can personally recommend.

Note

Some David Austin varieties are no longer sold by the company following a rationalisation of their stock list in 2022.

Varieties left to right from top

Chicago Peace, Queen of Sweden, Stephen Rulo, Iceberg, Darcy Bussell, Blue Moon, Golden Celebration, Fragrant Delight, Crocus Rose

If you’re not from cold, damp Scotland, but have a sunnier, drier climate, you could try some of the roses grown by Californian rose farms. This is a plain list only and as we definitely don’t have Californian growing conditions, we can’t recommend these unless they’re also on the Recommended Roses sheet.

Buying and Planting Roses

Planning your purchases

If you’re planting roses for cut flowers you need to plan for them. Be really clear about who you’ll be selling them to, what they have to do for your customer and how long they should ideally last (be realistic!).

Roses are best purchased as bareroot – they’re cheaper and easier to transport and are sold when the plants aren’t actively growing. Bareroot plants are usually two years old, so should establish quickly and grow strongly. Bareroot roses are available from November to March but can often be ordered in advance to ensure getting the varieties you want. Potted plants can be bought all year round but can be restricted by being grown in a small space.

It’s easy to get distracted by catalogue photos of beautiful roses, social media posts and the enthusiasm of others. You should definitely love what you’re growing, but it should also do what you need it to do:

·        Look during the summer, visit a good nursery or a lovely garden near to your plot that has a good labelled rose garden. It’s tempting to do this bit of research when you’re on holiday, but you really need to see what does well where your roses will be growing.

·        Spend time looking, take lots of photos, but make sure you photograph the label too or you’ll forget what they all are! Try to go after a couple of days of rain and see how the blooms have fared outside in wet weather.

·        Look in local gardens and ask questions of people who have good roses. What does well on my clay soil in Scotland may be very different to roses that thrive on Surrey chalk.

·        Complete the Rose Checklist (below) to make sure the roses you’re choosing meet the criteria and will do a good job for you.

Suppliers

When you know what you want and you have a plan, then you’re ready to look for suppliers. I try to buy locally wherever possible. as the plants are much more likely to do well in our chilly conditions. However, with specialist plants it’s not always so easy to source locally. I’ve purchased from the following UK suppliers, all were good, easy to deal with and the plants sent out in good condition.

•J Parkers - very reasonably priced and good stock. A limited range, but tried and tested varieties. Available in small quantities from retail site or bulk from wholesale. Online only.

Retail https://www.jparkers.co.uk/shrubs/roses

Wholesale https://www.dutchbulbs.co.uk/c-f/roses/

•Rogers - Nursery in Yorkshire. Customers can visit the nursery field and view the huge number of varieties in flower. Online ordering of bareroot and pot grown plants.

http://www.rvroger.co.uk/index.php?linksource=listgroup&listgroupfile=roses

•Griffins Roses - wholesale rose nursery in Cambridgeshire. Varieties are grown to order so there is a long lead in time and high volumes are needed. Flowers from the Farm did a shared bulk order with Griffins Roses.

http://griffinsroses.co.uk/

•David Austin Roses - rose breeder and cut flower seller. David Austin supply both retail and wholesale. They aren’t always terribly keen to supply wholesale to cut flower growers as they see it as competition for their own cut flower sales. Roses are good quality and they offer their own varieties plus some that are freely available. They can be ordered online or by phone. David Austin varieties can also be purchased from other wholesalers that grow under licence.

https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/

CK Jones - retail nursery in Cheshire supplying bareroot and potted plants. Online ordering only. Great plants and good customer service.

https://jonestherose.co.uk/

Additional rose nurseries:

Cottage Memories

Harkness Roses

Peter Beales Roses

Handley Rose Nursery

Parkside Nursery

Trevor White Roses

If you have a rose grower you’re happy to recommend add them to the COMMENTS at the end of this section - thank you!

Where to Plant

Roses thriving under cover

The planting site for roses is hugely important and can be crucial to success.

When you’re deciding where to plant your roses this is my advice:

1. Find or create the best, most sunny, sheltered spot in your flower field or plot

2. Improve the soil, get it the best you can

3. Remove weeds (or smother them)

4. Provide a cover if at all possible

5. Then plant your roses

   Below is a pictorial step by step guide to rose planting

   1. Prepare the ground - here it’s covered with landscape fabric

   2. Burn holes in fabric at required distance and dig spacious planting holes

   3. Dip rose roots in water

   4. Apply mycorrhiza granules

   5. Place in hole and backfill with earth. Don’t worry about piling up, the earth will settle. Make sure that roots are well covered or there is a risk that grafted plants will sucker from the rootstock.

      CLICK on the next photo to move the carousel along

SOIL

Roses like lots of food and plenty of moisture so they need a soil that will provide that easily. Our clay soil is great for roses, it holds moisture and is very fertile. If you have a light, or sandy soil you will need to add plenty of organic matter to retain water and feed so that the roots of the plant can access it. Work on your soil before planting to give your roses the best start. General advice has changed over recent years to recommend adding feed such as manure to the surface of the soil rather than adding it to the planting hole.

A soil pH of 6.5-6.9 is ideal, so slightly acidic. If your soil is outside this range, the plants ability to access nutrients in the soil may be adversely affected.

Research has shown that adding Mycorrhiza when planting can help shrubs and trees to establish quickly by increasing the uptake of food and water by the plant. The mycorrhiza forms a web that allows the plant to access nutrients beyond its roots. It’s effect is hampered by phosphorus in growing conditions however, so it’s best to look carefully at it as an option to see if it will be beneficial for you.

TIMING

Plant roses as soon as you receive them. They are generally sent out bareroot in the early winter but can be ordered in pots throughout the year. If you’re ordering a lot, talk to the supplier about when they’ll be dispatched to make sure you’re ready to plant them as soon as they arrive.

PLANTING DISTANCES AND SUPPORT

Roses vary greatly in size and scale and their planting distance needs to take this into account. If you’re planting a vigorous rambler it will need plenty of space to sprawl. You don’t want a petite shrub rose to be too close to a strapping floribunda or it will be completely overshadowed.

Roses for cutting can be planted closer together than in a garden

If you can provide good soil, food and water for your plants, roses can be planted much more closely together than is recommended for garden roses (usually 1m apart). If you’re trying to squeeze as many roses as possible into restricted space or a greenhouse or tunnel, you’ll be pleased to know that shrub, floribunda and hybrid tea plants can be spaced as closely as 50cm.

Some plants will be sturdy and upright, quite able to hold their own in any weather. Others will need some support or they will flop to the ground and be battered by wind. Ramblers and climbers will obviously need a good framework to hold them up and will grow more vigorously if tied in to a firm base. Make sure when erecting supports that you can easily move around the plants to cut the blooms. I have a double row of plants with support posts up the middle so that the stems are easy to reach and cut.

Is all of this really necessary?

You might think that this is overkill, that roses can grow quite happily in a garden with very little attention and look beautiful. This is sometimes the case. In early summer it seems that there are so many roses everywhere, it must be so easy to grow them. And that can be true for garden plants, but look closely at the blooms and see how many will be good enough quality to use as cut flowers. If you’re selling them to florists or using them in a bridal bouquet, they need to be top quality, no blemishes, good strong stems, just at the right stage, and the right number of blooms. That’s much harder to achieve than a garden display where no one looks too closely at individual flowers.

Cover is a game changer in temperate climates. In Scotland, my polytunnel roses are more productive as they flower earlier ( in early May) and so fit in three ‘flushes’ of flowers before the end of the season. Outside, the blooming season starts later (in early June) so there are only two flushes of blooms.

I do grow roses outdoors and have planted more outside in recent years that are doing well. However, the varieties I’ve chosen for outside are carefully selected to be robust, healthy, hardy and with flowers that are unbothered by rain. There are fewer of these and they aren’t the most fashionable. The fashion for frilly, cup-shaped blooms doesn’t provide many roses that are good for growing outside. They look lovely in the garden but a heavy shower of rain, or a windy day can make the blooms damaged and unsaleable. Even in the far south-east of England, the Real Flower Company grows its roses under open-sided Spanish tunnels.

Rose tunnels at the Real Flower Company in Hampshire, UK

Growing Roses for Cutting

Propagation

Rose hips are full of seeds

Growing from Seed

Most new varieties of rose start off as seed grown plants. All plants will set seed if they aren’t deadheaded or cut, forming a hip which contains the seed. Wait until the hip ripens and goes dark brown, then break it open to release the seeds. Plant in good quality seed compost and new plants should emerge. They won’t be the same as the parent plant as the flower will have been pollinated, so they will be a totally new variety - the possibilities are endless! If you get a really good variety, you can then propagate by taking cuttings, to increase the stock of your own unique rose.

Propagation from Cuttings

If you have roses already, it’s easy to make more of them by taking cuttings.

If you’re growing for commercial use (either to sell plants or the flowers grown from them) you can only propagate plants if they aren’t protected by PBR or Plant Breeders Rights. This is a form of new plant copyright and enables plant breeders to get a return on their investment in new plant development by controlling the sale and propagation of their plants. Most new varieties, and all of the ‘English Roses’ bred by David Austin are PBR protected so must not be propagated without a licence.

Any other roses can be multiplied by growing cuttings, which is pretty straightforward.

1. Cut a piece of rose stem between 10 and 20 cm

2. Make a slanted cut just below a leaf node at the bottom end of the stem

3. Remove leaves and cut just above a leaf node at the top of the stem

4. Fill a pot with compost

5. Slide the cuttings around the side of the pot

6. Place in a sheltered spot. They should root within around 6 weeks. Once they are growing pot on until big enough to plant out. The cutting (above) is around 6 months from propagation.

The slideshow below demonstrates a step by step method for potting up cuttings using an alternative 2 pot perlite method. Click on the photos to move it along.

Feeding and Watering

Roses are hungry and thirsty plants. To produce lots of great blooms they need the raw materials to produce growth in good quantities. One of our rose plants has produced over 60 long stems with stunning blooms this season. It wouldn’t be able to that without copious quantities of food and water.

We have a lot of visitors to the flower farm and they always comment on the health of the roses and ask for advice about their own roses. When I mention feeding them, the majority look puzzled, and a few look guilty. It’s rare that roses are fed more than a couple of times a year in most gardens, so it’s hardly surprising that they struggle or underperform.

We mulch our roses in the winter with a deep layer of organic matter. This provides a slow release fertiliser, improves and builds the soil so that it can absorb water and feed. We use whatever is readily available, usually well rotted horse manure, woodchip, pond weed or seaweed. This provides the basis of feeding only and we add to this weekly throughout the growing season with a liquid feed.

Feed your roses weekly. Get into a routine where you feed your roses on a particular day and don’t skip it. I feed and deadhead on Monday and water on Friday, the roses are usually cut on Wednesday. If you want good quality roses all season and healthy plants at the end of it, feeding is the key!

What to use to for weekly feeding is a matter of personal choice. You can buy specialist rose food or make your own compost tea. I place a big blue barrel near to the roses, fill it with plant material (seaweed, nettles, comfrey, grass clippings, etc) add half a bucket of manure and top it up with water. Within around 14 days it will be properly stinky and ready to use. I make sure the roses are well watered first, then apply one watering can of feed for every 8 bushes.

There are hundreds of branded rose feeds on the market, including some organic versions. They tend to contain varying proportions of Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium, which are necessary for plant growth. Advice on feeding often recommends feeding different chemicals at different times of the season with the idea that nitrogen produces vegetative, or top growth, phosphorous produces flower buds and potassium builds strong healthy plants. When we’re growing for cut flowers we’re asking the plants to produce new stems, leaves and flowers all season so it would seem sensible to make sure that the chemical mix is balanced, rather than focused on one particular element. A strong and healthy plant is what we’re aiming to support. Be aware too, that fertilisers high in phospates may interfere with the effectiveness of mycorrhiza. Fertilisers can be water soluble, pelleted or powder.

A good deep mulch for the winter will also break down to improve the soil and feed the plants

Roses don’t like to be dry. In very free draining soil they will struggle unless well watered. Try to improve your soil be adding lots of humus material and apply a deep mulch to prevent the soil drying out.

If they’re outside in an area with plenty of rain, they may not need additional water but keep a close eye on them and water if necessary. If you’re growing inside, in tunnels or greenhouses, a good drenching at least twice a week will be minimum in the summer. Don’t surface water lightly as that will not reach the roots, it’s much more effective to totally drench the soil less often.

Pruning for cut flowers

When to prune

Why do we prune roses? The stems of plants grow from thick at the base to thin at the top. Stems will grow to culminate in a flower and then sprout additional stems from there upwards. Without pruning, the stems end up progressively thinner and more spindly. If we cut them low down, the stems will be thicker and sturdier, plus there will be more produced by the plant.

It’s usual to prune garden bush roses in late winter or early spring and I did follow that advice initially. However, when I moved the plants indoors I pruned hard in November before digging them up and they did so much better. Pruning much earlier, in late autumn or early winter, means that the plants will flower earlier, particularly if they are under cover. Even in the winter, a plant will do some growing and if you leave them until March, then you’ll just be cutting that new growth off. In addition, if you prune in November/December, the plants suffer less from wind rock if outside and have a good base to start growing as soon as the conditions are right.

Here’s a short video looking at roses under protection at the end of the season, just before pruning:

I have seen advice to stagger pruning to stagger the flowering period, and this may work to a certain extent. What it does is delay growth of the plants that are pruned later. However, that means that the potential for those earlier flowers is lost and plants will probably produce fewer stems during the season as a whole. I find that having roses in different settings spreads the blooms across the season. So, bushes under cover will bloom here first in early May, followed by outdoor plants and by the time they are finishing their first flush, the protected roses will be ready to bloom again.

I now prune all roses before Christmas, and the indoor ones are pruned at the beginning of November. Climbing and rambling roses are slightly different as they usually are pruned to tidy the structure and tied in to supports. The stems should be brought to horizontal to encourage new stems that will then grow vertically into flowering stems.

See the videos below for demonstrations of pruning for cut flowers. There are 2 versions, the second one has a timelapse film of pruning the long rose bed.

Should you wait before cutting?

General advice on growing roses is to wait until year 3 before cutting blooms - as in the rhyme at the beginning of this course. The theory is that the plant will divert energy away from flowering to building a strong root system. This will only make a difference if the plants are rigorously dis-budded in years 1 and 2, otherwise all you have is a load of flowers wasted on the plant, and if they go to seed the situation will be worse. If you don’t let the plant flower, it will continue to send up new flowering stems and is likely to develop a more bushy habit.

Is this necessary?

Well, you’ll have to make your own decision, but this is my experience. I tend to prune the plants properly in the winter, tidying up any new ones as they are planted out. The feeding regime is the same, weekly feeding and plenty of water. As they grow in year 1, the first stems are short, but do form buds. I dis-bud these until the stems are long and the plant is growing vigorously. This is usually half way through the summer, depending on the variety. Once the stems are long, strong and looking good, I cut them. Waiting 3 years is not an efficient use of my time and space, and given the right care and conditions, I haven’t seen a huge difference in the health of the plant or its performance. It may be that the plants have a shorter overall useful life as cut flower shrubs and need replacing earlier but that’s fine with me.

Support

If you have varieties that have a tall or lax habit, grow under cover or are on a exposed site you may need to provide support for your plants. Roses can suffer from windrock and become loose at the base if they are buffeted about by gales. Some varieties such as the Crocus Rose are tall and the stems grow in an arc, so they need support to keep the blooms clean and off the ground.

You can stake each plant but that would mean putting stakes near to the roots and risking damage unless you do it before planting. We have our tunnel roses supported by a row of 2m stakes with a double row of fencing wire. The stems are either tied in to the wire or lean against it when they grow, which lets us move around the tunnel without being grabbed.


Pests and Diseases

There are many pests and diseases that affect roses and there are lots of publications that can provide treatment and cure options for each one so I’m going to cover them here in detail. The best cure is always prevention:

• Buy good quality stock

• Plant carefully in a sheltered, sunny position

• Ensure good ventilation and airflow

• Feed Feed Feed

• Water well

• Encourage biodiversity of plants and insects

• Remove diseased and dead plant material

It’s easy to panic if you see a problem and head to bottles on the shelves of garden centres for an easy fix. Every year in early April we get the first aphids on the roses, but I’ve learned that if I wait a week we’ll also see the arrival of hover flies, and the spiders move in. This season we’ve also had dragonflies and damselflies hunting around the roses and in the polytunnels.
A keen eyed visitor spotted the signs of rose damage from the leaf cutter bee this year too. It’s quite an unusual insect so we were thrilled, despite the chunks it cut off the rose leaves! Make sure that you allow predatory insects to access your roses. If you screen the doors to polytunnels or greenhouses with mesh you’ll find that aphids manage to get in but bigger insects and birds that might feed on the aphids are kept out and you have an explosion of pests.

If you’re worried about greenfly on your roses and don’t already have a balanced ecosystem, you can buy juvenile predators through the post to get you started. The thing to remember when adding predatory insects to your plot is to make sure they have something to eat or they’ll just die off. So don’t be tempted to spray off the pests until they arrive, leave a few as a welcome banquet for your new workers and they’ll be encouraged to stick around.

Our approach is to an onslaught of pests and diseases is to feed the plants more, keep them vigorous and strong and then they’ll easily see off the attacks. Individual blooms can be protected physically with mesh bags, or cut just as they are opening to prevent bruising.

The End Product

Cutting and Conditioning

A full bed of roses, ready for cutting?

You’ve done everything right, chosen good varieties for your market, planted them in a perfect spot, cared for them and got them to grow and bloom beautifully. The final part of the job is to cut and condition the stems to provide what you and your customers need.

The basics of cutting flowers are:

• Cut only in the morning or evening, when it’s cool

• Use clean buckets and fresh water- using flower food is a personal choice. I don’t use it, I have excellent results from clean, cool water

• Cut with sharp, clean snips or secateurs

• Remove any foliage that will be under the water

• Move into a cool dim space as soon as possible

• Leave to recover for 2-3 hours minimum

Roses should be cut as above, but with a key additional step. If the cut stem of the rose is allowed to dry out at all, the rose can’t rehydrate and may droop. If it doesn’t actively droop it may fail to open any further. To prevent this, the stem needs to be re-cut again under water.

When cutting roses

1. Take 2 buckets of clean fresh water

2. Cut the stem from the plant - cut it long, I aim for 50-80cm depending on the variety. Cutting low gives the plant the message to grow more long stems.

3. Remove the lower leaves and any thorns that will cause problems when handling

4. Place the stem under water in bucket 1 and re-cut

5. Place into bucket 2 to condition fully

Once you have a few stems in a bucket it’s hard to get your hands and new stems under the water to re-cut so an additional bucket allows re-cutting without damaging the cut stems or catching your hands on rose thorns. It also means you don’t end up with a bucket of stem debris from the re-cutting mixing in with the rose stems for conditioning.

Re-cut stems under water to prevent the risk of dehydration

Cutting in adverse conditions

Wherever possible, it’s best to cut roses in dry, still conditions. However, there are times when we know poor weather is predicted but still need to cut stems from outdoor plants. If possible cut the blooms when they are still protected by guard petals, the petals just under the sepals. Although these may be mottled or rain damaged, they can be easily lifted off once the stem has dried off without affecting the bloom. The same can be done with blooms that are bruised by insects, as the outer petals protect the main bloom from significant damage.

What’s the right stage to cut a rose?

Well, that all depends on when they are going to be used, and to a certain extent on the variety of rose.

If you’re cutting for a wholesale order and the flowers won’t be used until 2-3 days after cutting, then they need to be cut in loose bud, so that they will be in full bloom for the event. Make sure the sepals are fully back and you can see the petals beginning to unfurl. If cut when the sepals are still covering the petals the bud may not open, or may open very slowly and produce a smaller bloom.

If you’re cutting roses for your own floristry and will be using them on the day of cutting or the next day, they can be fully open with the petals all showing. Be wary of cutting roses that are fully showing their stamens as they may not last more than a few hours in a warm place.

Some varieties of rose are quicker than others to go from bud to full bloom and it takes time to get to know the varieties and their individual behaviour. For example, Iceberg has a fairly simple shape and quickly moves from bud with reflexed sepals to full bloom, usually just 24-26 hours and this can be less in warm conditions.

In the gallery below

Row 1 shows buds in stages of opening, the right photo with sepals fully back

Row 2 shows blooms almost fully open, ideal for use within 24-36 hours

Row 2 shows 3 stages of the same bloom in bud, opening and fully open

A Thorny Issue

Most roses have thorns, though some more than others. This can make them spiky to handle for the flower grower and the end user. There are rose de-thorners available in a few different designs but think carefully before de-thorning.

What do you need to do to make the stems safe for you to handle? I tend to snip off any large thorns when cutting so that I can easily handle and sort the stems into orders.  If I’m supplying a florist then that’s all I’ll do. If they are particularly thorny I’ll warn them when they are delivered or wrap in paper. I don’t use a thorn stripper for wholesale orders.

If I’m supplying roses as part of a retail order - a wedding bouquet, gift bouquet or DIY bucket - I’ll usually do a better job of clearing any thorns that could cause damage to clothing or skin. The recipient will be much less well prepared to deal with spikes and I see it as part of my service to make the flowers safe to handle. I occasionally use a rose stripper if the stem is very thorny but I’m careful to just take off the thorns and to avoid damaging the outer layer of the stem.    

Just cut and ready for conditioning

Transportation

Imported roses grown in commercial conditions are handled roughly. They are packed in boxes, wrapped in cellophane and often transported out of water. Our roses definitely deserve better treatment!  

• Always transport in water

• Support carefully - small bunches can be lightly wrapped in paper

• Keep cool and upright

• Avoid rough handling, they are delicate blooms and easily bruised

Using every stem

When you’ve worked hard to get your roses performing well and blooming magnificently, you won’t want to waste a single petal. There are a few options for those roses that arrive when you don’t have a use for them as fresh flowers:

• fresh petal confetti

• dried petal confetti - we have a dehydrator that turns ‘waste’ into a preserved asset

• edible flower petals - if they’re grown without pesticides or herbicides, roses are an edible flower and petals can be made into syrup, essence and other edible products

• dried flowers

Deadheaded roses ready to be dried for confetti

And of course, if you’ve grown and nurtured them there’s no reason why a lovely vase of exquisite blooms shouldn’t find their way into a vase for your home! There have to be perks when you’re a flower farmer or florist, enjoy your roses!

Thanks so much for completing this course. We’d very much appreciate your feedback if you could spare a few minutes to complete a short questionnaire.

Zoom Online Q & A

To view the Zoom session from 27 September 2021 follow the link below

https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/ADpoVc3nwP-ujdHQzS2lOUOt-gg7cPn_w-HKfojsdntNlXKQ4u4oYgurQm4AM4qG.JXylD3pSqQXCNqaA

This is a Zoom call recording from our February 2021session.