GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

12-02-2004, 11:32 PM

(Robert E A Harvey) wrote in
om:

I want to give my wife a rose bush for valentine's day.

Any thoughts?
Varieties?
bare rooted or containered?

Suppliers of bare root roses don't in my experience tend to be very good on
delivering for particular dates. They deliver to suit the rose, not the
owner. ;-)

If you want one for Saturday, best go for a containerised plant from a
local nursery, but I'd suggest *not* one that's been forced into flower
early for the event. ( Roses are pretty tough so it will probably get over
even that, but it might be a bit under the weather for the next year or
so.)

If you want a classic dark red scented rose that is easy to grow and has a
long flowering period, I'd suggest Velvet Fragrance.

There was a discussion of the best red roses on urg a while back - if you
try Google Groups you might find other recommendations there.

Roses like manure. (It may not be romantic, but it's true.) Get a bag of
pelleted stuff to mulch it with if you don't have a ready supply to hand.

Victoria