Good plant #22 - Rosa Rambling Rector

This is an incredibly vigorous and heavily scented climbing rose.  This is often used to grow through trees, cover pergolas and hide unsightly garden buildings and features.  It only flowers once in June but does it with aplomb -  large clusters of sweet smelling flowers.  This is one of the roses I have trained round my own front door.

Although this plant produces  brightly coloured orange/ red hips which would provide colour in the winter, I always remove them at the end of summer.  At the same time I prune to remove very old stems and spindly ones and in a way which encourages lateral growth the following year.  More lateral growth equals more flowers in my book.

This rose is pretty robust and will tolerate most sites and soils. Adding plenty of manure and compost to the planting hole will give it a good start.  I always feed roses when the new leaves are beginning to show.   You can do hardwood cuttings in autumn.

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