After a long, cold, bunkered-down winter is there anything as heart-gladdening as the signs of spring?
Bare trees begin to bud up ready to blossom or unfurl their leaves. The bulbs emerge to promise color
and scent, and the days start to fill with birdsong. It’s all wonderful, but seeing the waking rose is
always a sure sign of the warmer weather.
Of course this happens at different times depending on where you garden. The deeper the winter cold, the
later the moment when your roses start to pop, but come it will. And to make the most of your roses,
these tweaks are designed to bring on a glorious summer-long display.
Here’s how:
1. Pick the right rose in the first place. It’s easy to fall in love with a rose at face value –
literally by its flower – but slow down long enough to check how it grows below the neck before you make
a decision. Look to fill your garden with rose bushes that are lush and softly mounded because you also
want the plant to look good in the landscape. Also, pick a rose that’s super easy to grow so you don’t
have to fuss with complex pruning, or spraying to deal with aphids and black spot.
2. Set your rose up for a season of flowers. This is easy and achievable if you’re lucky enough to have
something like the extended flowering of the Flower Carpet roses already growing in your garden. All you
need to do is walk outside with your hedge clippers and give each bush a uniform cut back by two-thirds.
Rough and ready does the job – the proof will be the flower cover you’ll enjoy in the weeks that follow.

3. A little bit of weeding and feeding wouldn’t hurt. If the thought of doing either of these is freaking
you out, don’t bother. Roses tend to hold their own against the weeds: runner grass growing up through a
bush doesn’t look fabulous, but to each their own. And they seem to cope without regular feeding. But if
you don’t mind pulling the weeds out from around the base of each bush and tossing around your preferred
form of fertilizer, you’ll be rewarded with even more flowers. Mulching is the icing on the cake.
Fill your garden with easy care roses. Chop them to create a strong flowering framework, then boost the
flowering even further with a few extras . . . weeding, feeding and mulching.