Well, it certainly has been wet this summer so far. We are told that roses need a lot of water but perhaps they can have too much of a good thing if it is raining down on the blooms themselves. Most of my roses, particularly the David Austin varieties, have flowered profusely, but the blooms have been droopy, lasted a very short time and some have failed to open properly at all. The blackspot has started already and fellow gardeners are being pestered by pests, particularly aphids. So today Ella and I set about tidying things up.

If the rain has caused ‘rose balling’, where the blooms fail to open properly because the outer petals have become stuck together, this can sometimes be remedied by removing the outer petals to release the ones underneath.

However, if the flower is past its best or the petals have completely fallen, the whole blossom and its short stem should removed either by cutting it off at the main stem, or just by snapping it off. Roses usually come away easily and tidily at the stem joint.

When the whole spray is finished, the main stem should be should be cut back to just above a good set of five leaves. This will neaten up the appearance of the plant and, if the rose is repeat flowering, it will stimulate new sprays to shoot for another display later.

If the rose is infected with black spot, which is a fungal disease, the plant can be sprayed with a proprietary rose fungicide at the recommended intervals. However, you do have to be careful not to spray while pollenating insects are about. A more environmentally friendly approach is to apply a foliar feed in a spray, such as Liquid Seaweed, which will build up the health of the rose making it more resistant to all disease and insect attack. A foliar feed acts very rapidly on the plant, faster than a rose fertiliser applied to the roots. A suitable regime might be to alternate a foliar feed with a root fertiliser at fortnighly intervals.

Which ever approach you take it is important to remove all infected leaves, included ones that have fallen, because these carry the fungal spores and will reinfect the plant from year to year.