Indoor Colour For Spring

Bring the spring feeling indoors with lilies, early-flowering roses and begonias that are as colourful as any spring bedding plant. They all grow well indoors and can be planted outdoors to extend their summer show.

- Alice Spenser-Higgs

While rose stems outdoors are just starting to sprout, without a flower in sight, it is possible to have roses indoors. Roses double up as living bouquets and indoor decor plants. Each pot contains 3 – 4 mini-roses, which is why a single pot is so full of buds and blooms.

Requirements: For long-lasting indoor flowers display the roses close to a windowsill or on the patio where they get good light but not direct sunlight. Cut off the stems to 5cm above the ground when the flowers are over, and feed with a liquid fertiliser like Multifeed, Seagro or Kelpak when new shoots are visible. The roses will flower again in two months.

Long-term care: The roses will come into flower more quickly if kept outside in the sun, but will need to be watered every day. Take the rose inside again when the blooms start opening, or display it on the patio as an outdoor feature. Pot roses adapt well to growing outdoors and should be treated like any other container-grown rose: daily watering in summer, fertilising with Vigorosa once a month in summer, and monthly spraying with Ludwig’s Insect Spray to control pests.