At their absolute peak of colour, everywhere you look in June, roses promise so much from vibrantly coloured petals and shiny green leaves, and you can smell nature’ s very own perfumery!

Roses are one of the most rewarding plants you can grow, but ensuring peak blooms is not for the faint-hearted. We have 5,000 roses at Hever Castle, so deadheading is also not for the faint-hearted!

Here are my top priority jobs and tips for keeping your roses healthy and blooming beautifully this June.

Don’ t panic over pests: When it comes to blackfly and greenfly( aphids), we like to let nature do the work at Hever. You might find aphids under the leaves one week, but we just watch as fantastic gardeners like hoverflies, bees, ladybirds and birds do their work to clear them. If you are eager to clear your roses of aphids yourself, simply take your thumb

and forefinger, gently brush the leaves and squash the blighters.

Battle the blackspot: Blackspot is a real problem and this fungus can ruin the appearance of your roses. It is also crucial to ensure the area around your roses is clean and clear of debris; mouldy dropped leaves left on the ground will only encourage the fungus to keep going next season. The best tip, however, comes from Val Bourne herself who suggested people dispose carefully of any diseased roses( not in your compost) and buy disease-resistant plants- there are some brilliant ones out there now.

Feed for flushes: Another key to promoting healthy roses is to feed them with a granular, slow-release food at the start of the season and then again after the first flush of blooms in July. Take your feed and draw a little circle with it around the base of the plant, making absolutely sure the feed doesn’ t scorch the leaves.

Tie back: Climbing roses do just that; they climb! It’ s important to make sure you have something to support your climber- a shed, a pergola or a wall. We grow lots of roses up the walls of the Rose Garden and use recycled plastic ties attached to masonry nails. These last for ages, unlike string which

can perish. Never use metal ties as these damage the stems.

Deadhead: It’ s essential to keep on top of the job of deadheading. Take a pair of sharp secateurs, make sure they’ re clean( disinfect if necessary) and cut the spent rose off- a couple of centimetres below the head- and close to the first set of leaves. Do not snap them off and always make a clean cut with your secateurs. When you deadhead a rose, it releases hormones within the plant that encourage it to make new roses, so keep at it and make sure you deadhead to extend the flowering of your roses.

Don’ t forget, Hever in Bloom runs from Monday 22 June to Friday 3 July, and the Plant Fairs Roadshow returns on Sunday 28 June.

hevercastle. co. uk hever _ castle