Gardening tips for July 2026

Last year, I mentioned that “June got off to a damp start…”; this June has also got off to a damp start, just a bit damper with 45mm of rain in the first three days of the month, the same amount as fell in the whole of March, April and May combined. A welcome break from the scorching 35C at the end of May and the rain was certainly needed by farmers. I just hope it was the right sort of rain.

Last June’s article was all about mulching and after the rain in June there is no better time to get mulching just in case the weather does take a turn for the better and we end up with a steaming hot, sunny summer.

A bit about roses

Plants that do enjoy a bit of summer heat are roses, perhaps not surprising as they originate from Asia. According to Greek mythology, Chloris, the goddess of flowers, created a new flower by breathing life into a woodland nymph who had died. Dionysus, the god of wine and plant life gave it a beautiful perfume, and Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and pleasure, gave the rose its name by rearranging the letters of Eros, her son and the god of love and desire. Eros later gave a rose to Harpocrates, the god of silence as a bribe to ensure he kept the indiscretions of the gods to himself. Hence, the rose became symbolic of secrecy, silence, and love. This story was carried on into Roman mythology, with the protagonists replaced by their gods, Flora, Venus, Cupid, and Bacchus et al.

The association with secrecy led to the rose becoming a visual symbol of the need for discretion. Roses were carved into the ceilings and walls of public rooms in grand houses, courtrooms, and Catholic confessionals as a reminder that all conversations should be kept confidential. From the Middle Ages, a rose was often suspended from the ceiling of a government council chamber to ensure the secrecy of proceedings. Therefore, sub rosa ("under the rose") became a quasi-legal term still in use to denote something that is best kept under wraps.

From being purely decorative, roses gradually took on a more symbolic significance when they started to appear in the emblems of nobility. In the 13th century, the white Rosa alba was the badge of Eleanor of Provence, wife of Henry III. Her son Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, adopted the red Rosa gallica from his wife Blanche of Artois (my 21^st great grandmother. And no, no known relation to René Artoir from Allo Allo) when they married. This established the red rose as the mark of the House of Lancaster.

More than 200 years later, Richard, Duke of York, chose the white rose as his badge. The right to the crown was disputed by the House of Lancaster and the House of York between 1455 and 1487, during the War of the Roses. The resolution of that civil war resulted in the Lancastrian Henry Tudor being crowned King Henry VII. He married Elizabeth of York and united the symbolic white and red roses to form the Tudor rose. The form of this double rose can be seen carved into Tudor buildings and furniture and painted into portraits of the time, symbolising for all time a united country (if only).

Roses even make it into song. Can anyone remember the inventors in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang singing “The Roses of Success”?  For up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success!

Roses have also been around in one shape or another for 30 million years so it’s about time they learned to fend off black spot, mildew, mosaic virus and those pesky thrips and greenfly.

If a fragrant rose is needed, which one to go for? The showier and therefore more cultivated a rose, the less perfume it carries. Not necessarily true but a useful rule of thumb, I find the sniff test a valuable tool when buying roses. For fragrance, go for an English or Old variety, shrub roses and climbers are also a worthy choice. A good choice for a hedge is Rosa Rugosa (the wrinkled rose); prune with vigour using a hedge trimmer after flowering and be amazed that it comes back year after year full of blooms, an often-overlooked hedging plant.

Keep gardening, Richard Haigh