Get ready for the roses

There is no flower that epitomises the English garden more than the rose, and now is the time to get your roses into your gardens, for a stunning summer show.

Roses can be stand-alone shrubs, low bushes for ground cover, tall standard roses, grouped together to form rose hedges, or climbers and ramblers that will scale houses or decorate obelisks, archways and other garden furniture. There’s literally a rose for every garden, and every function.

Roses have been around forever – fossil evidence suggests at least 35 million years. Today there are over 30,000 varieties of roses worldwide and every year new roses are bred and named, often to celebrate anniversaries and significant events.

David Austin is one of the best, most well established and prestigious breeders of roses in the UK and they are now stocked at Busy Bee, just outside Ryde. The crème de la crème of roses, winning many awards, David

Austin Roses has been breeding exquisite English Roses for almost 60 years and they are renowned for their beautiful, often many petalled, repeat flowering blooms and enticing, rich fragrances. Roses from David Austin that are currently in stock at Busy Bee include The Pilgrim, The Poet’s Wife, Silas Marner, Gentle Hermione and Boscobel. The Pilgrim is a particularly beautiful soft yellow climbing rose, with petals that pale prettily towards the edges. The buds open to reveal many petalled cups, which gradually form large, flat rosettes and have a medium strength fragrance, which is a perfect balance of tea and myrrh. It will quickly reach some height and still produce flowers and leaves lower down the plant. The Poet’s Wife is a shrub rose that bears rich yellow flowers, which pale over time, and have a neat outer ring of petals enclosing an informal group of petals within. There is a strong, wonderfully rich fragrance with a hint of lemon, which becomes sweeter and stronger with age. It forms a bushy, nicely rounded shrub with arching branches and rather shiny foliage. Silas Marner is a shrub rose of soft mid pink, the petals are pale on the reverse and fade at the edges creating a gentle quality. Held on red stems, the mediumsized cupped blooms have relaxed, almost ruffled petals which are set around an attractive button eye, with a medium-strong Old Rose fragrance with accents of fruity lemon, green banana and apricot. A very healthy medium-sized shrub with glossy dark green foliage and wide, arching growth. Gentle Hermione has perfectly formed, shallow cups of pure light pink, paling to soft blush on the outer petals. This shrub rose has a strong, warm myrrh fragrance, and forms an attractive, quite broad shrub, with slightly arching stems. The leaves are tinged red at first, later turning green.

Boscobel boasts red buds that open to beautifully formed, upward facing, coralpink rosettes. Small petals of varying shades mingle to provide a most pleasing effect. The myrrh fragrance has delicious hints of hawthorn, elderflower, pear and almond. It forms an upright shrub. Busy Bee also stock Harkness roses, who have been breeding and growing over 200 varieties of exquisite British Roses for more than 140 years. This year they have introduced a rose for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee called the Queen Elizabeth II rose, with £2.50 going to the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust for every rose sold, and these are in stock at Busy Bee. Queen Elizabeth II Rose has large classic shaped flowers which combine elements of soft pink light amber gold and cream, and strong sweet rose scent. The plant is strong and robust with big dark green leaves that have a good disease resistance. Use in beds, borders or hedges, large patio containers and for cutting.

Busy Bee is your first stop for top quality roses – pay a visit to see their extensive range.

Brading Road, Ryde PO33 1QG | t: 01983 811096 OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm Sundays 9am to 4pm busybeegardencentre.co.uk

TOP TIPS FOR ROSES

Container roses are a great for novice gardeners because they’re easy to plant and establish quickly. Plant your roses when climate conditions are ideal - preferably a cool and cloudy day, rather than in full sunlight.

Make sure that your rose has some sun, ideally at least four hours of sunlight a day, preferably more, and they need rich soil with plenty of organic matter (roses love well-rotted horse manure). In a garden that gets a lot of frost, plant your rose bush next to a south or west-facing fence or wall to minimise winter damage.

Ensure the rose has enough space, so that the roots do not suffer from intense competition from neighbouring plants, including trees and hedges.

The planting hole needs to be deep enough and wide enough to accommodate the plant’s roots, and needs to have good drainage, since roses don’t like wet feet.

The soil should be kept evenly moist throughout the growing season. For an impressive show of flowers, a rose bush needs to be fertilized regularly.

Blackspot on your roses is one of the curses of living in the beautiful clean air of the Isle of Wight. Keep your roses clear of this fungal infection by spraying them with a sulphur dioxide-based spray twice a month in the growing season, as they do at Busy Bee.

BREAKWATERS

Culver Parade, Sandown

Breakwaters is a brand-new development of apartments, duplexes and houses that graces the seafront location of Sandown Bay. Occupying a prime position opposite an award-winning beach, the properties benefit from panoramic sea views across the bay and far-reaching views to the Culver Cliffs coastline and countryside. Find your perfect property within this development of luxury homes that are stylish and modern.

The luxurious feel continues throughout this complex with the properties being built to a high standard. You can personalise your home by choosing from a range of fitted kitchens and worktops to suit your style. Appliances will be integrated in the kitchens and underfloor heating comes as standard throughout. Safety and convenience has been recognised, as the properties have secure entry systems, allocated spaces and visitor parking bays. The apartments boast plenty of space, with a variety of sizes ranging from 72 square metres to 140 square metres Gross Internal Area within. For a real coastal feel, they benefit from balconies and/or terraces for al fresco dining. For peace of mind, these properties also benefit from a 10year Q Assure Warranty. Sandown Bay was voted the Best British Beach and described as a ‘traditional bucket and spade beach on the east coast of the island with miles of golden sand, pier and eclectic seafront – and just a short walk to peace, fossil-rich cliffs and stunning coastal wildlife’ in BBC’s Countryfile online poll. In 2021 this prestigious coastline was awarded ‘Blue Flag’ status, meaning it is recognised for its high safety, facilities, cleanliness and environmental considerations. Although three other beaches on the Isle of Wight won a seaside award, Sandown was the only beach to win ‘Blue Flag’ Status as well, and one of only 76 beaches across the country to hold the status. Just half a mile along the seafront is Yaverland beach, which allows dogs all year round and is the perfect place if you have a pet that needs to stretch their legs. Sandown Beach, directly in front of the development, is dog friendly in the winter months.

Currently over 50% of these properties are reserved, with only one seafront-facing apartment remaining available for reservation at the time of writing. If you would like further information, please contact Loren Allen at Hose Rhodes Dickson Shanklin on 01983 866000 or lorenallen@hrdiw.co.uk.