Robust roses

Now’s the time to plant disease-resistant roses to enjoy low-maintenance, floriferous plants that will fill your garden with scent next year, says Hazel Sillver

- Hazel Sillver

ROSES are the queens of the summer garden, producing generous romantic blooms that release beautiful perfume onto the air. Their only downfall is that some succumb to sickness, such as black spot and powdery mildew. Thankfully, there are lots of tough, healthy roses available, and now is the perfect time to plant them.

Rugosa roses have excellent disease resistance and a beautiful spicy scent. They form sizeable shrubs that repeat flower, produce autumn hips and make good hedging plants. ‘Scabrosa’ (magenta pink) and ‘Blanc Double de Coubert’ (white) are two of the best.

Long flowering season

Floribundas are another good group to aim for if disease resistance is your priority. White Iceberg (‘Korbin’) is popular, while other gems are ‘Korresia’ (yellow), pink-white Margaret Merril (‘Harkuly’) and ‘Chanelle’ (buff-pink). Forming compact shrubs with a long flowering season, they make fantastic border roses.

English roses are well known for their disease resistance, garnered by breeder David Austin using a wide range of species and classes to create them. Great examples include the pink The Mayflower (‘Austilly’), white Susan Williams-Ellis (‘Ausquirk’), and pale-pink Scarborough Fair (‘Ausoran’). All repeat flowering 39in (1m)-tall shrubs, they are wonderful in the middle of the border.

As we all become more eco-friendly, spraying roses prone to disease to keep them healthy is increasingly unappealing – not only do harsh chemical sprays kill beneficial insects (many of which eat pests, such as aphids), they can also harm larger garden wildlife, such as birds, if they eat the sprayed insects.

Companion planting