Growing Roses for Cutting: David Austin and Beyond

Why I Grow Roses for Cutting

I resisted roses for years. I thought they were fussy, disease-prone, and too much trouble for a working farm. Then I planted my first David Austin rose and everything changed. The scent, the shape, the longevity in the vase: nothing else quite compares.

Now I grow around forty rose bushes across several varieties, and they earn their space from late May through to November. If you are serious about growing flowers for cutting, roses deserve a place in your plan.

February is the perfect month to order bare-root stock. The plants arrive dormant, plant easily, and establish faster than potted specimens. You will get blooms this summer if you get them in the ground by mid-March.

David Austin Roses: The Classics

David Austin roses dominate the British cut-flower scene for good reason. They combine the cottage-garden shape of old roses with repeat-flowering and stronger stems. Most varieties are bred in Shropshire, so they suit our climate.

My most reliable David Austin varieties:

Juliet: peachy apricot, incredible scent, flowers prolifically. This is the one I would choose if I could only have one rose. It holds well in the vase and the colour works with everything.

Keira: soft blush pink, elegant shape, good disease resistance. This flowers later than Juliet but keeps going well into autumn.

Generous Gardener: pale pink climber, huge flowers, stunning scent. I grow this on an obelisk and cut stems up to 60cm long.

Lady of Shalott: apricot-orange, tough as boots, barely stops flowering. This one shrugs off blackspot and mildew better than most.

Darcey Bussell: deep crimson, perfect rosette form, stands out in mixed buckets. The colour is richer than most reds and does not fade to purple.

David Austin roses are not cheap. Expect to pay £25 to £35 per bare-root plant. But they live for decades if you treat them well, so the cost per stem drops every year.

Cut Rose Varieties Beyond David Austin

David Austin does not have a monopoly on beautiful cut roses. I also grow:

Compassion: a climbing hybrid tea in soft salmon-pink. Huge scent, classic high-centred shape, flowers all season. This is an old variety (1970s) but still one of the best for cutting.

Munstead Wood: another David Austin technically, but worth separate mention. Deep crimson, Old Rose scent, compact growth to around 90cm. Perfect if you are short on space.

Rosa Mundi (Rosa gallica versicolor): striped pink and white, once-flowering in June, utterly gorgeous. This is a true old rose, not repeat-flowering, but I keep it for the spectacle.

Iceberg: white floribunda, clean and simple, flowers in flushes from June to October. Not scented, but the pure white works in sympathy designs and the stems are strong.

New Dawn: pale blush climber, slight apple scent, vigorous and disease-resistant. This will cover a fence or arch and give you armfuls of stems.

I also trial new varieties most years. Last season I planted Desdemona (David Austin, white with a hint of apricot) and Port Sunlight (David Austin, apricot), both of which showed promise. I talk about variety trials regularly on The Cut Flower Podcast, so subscribe if you want to follow along.

Planting and Early Care

Bare-root roses arrive between November and March. February is ideal because the soil is warming but the plants are still dormant.

Soak the roots in a bucket of water for at least two hours before planting. Dig a hole deep enough that the graft union (the lumpy bit where the stems meet the roots) sits just below soil level. Backfill with your excavated soil mixed with a couple of handfuls of well-rotted compost or manure.

I plant roses in dedicated beds rather than scattering them through mixed borders. This makes feeding, mulching and spraying (if you spray) much simpler. Each bush needs about 60cm of space in all directions. Closer than that and airflow suffers, which invites disease.

Water well after planting, then leave them alone unless we have a dry spring. Roses hate sitting in waterlogged soil, so drainage matters more than extra watering in most UK locations.

Rose Care Through the Season

Roses are not difficult, but they do have a routine:

March: Mulch with well-rotted manure or compost, about 5cm deep. This feeds the soil, suppresses weeds and holds moisture.

April: Apply a balanced organic feed (I use blood, fish and bone at 70g per square metre). Repeat in June after the first flush.

May to October: Deadhead regularly. Cut spent blooms back to a leaf with five leaflets, facing outward. This encourages the plant to send up a new flowering stem rather than putting energy into hips.

November: Tidy up fallen leaves (they harbour disease), cut back any damaged or crossing stems, but save the main prune for February.

I do not spray for disease. I choose resistant varieties, give them space, mulch well, and accept that some blackspot is normal. If a rose gets truly hammered by disease year after year, I dig it out and try something else. Life is too short to nurse a sickly rose.

Cutting and Conditioning

Cut roses early in the morning when the stems are full of water. Choose blooms that are just starting to open: tight buds often will not open in the vase, and fully open flowers will not last.

Strip all leaves below the waterline. Rose leaves turn the water foul faster than almost any other foliage.

Recut the stems at a sharp angle under water, then condition in deep clean water for at least four hours (overnight is better). Change the water every two days and your roses will last a week or more.

Some people add sugar or lemonade to the water. I have never found it makes a difference. Clean water, clean buckets, and a cool room are what matter.

Is It Worth the Space?

Roses take up permanent space, need annual feeding and pruning, and do not flower in their first season (or not much). So why bother?

Because nothing else gives you that combination of scent, form, vase life and colour range. Because customers will pay more for British-grown scented roses than for almost any other flower. Because a bed of well-grown roses in June is one of the great joys of this job.

If you are just starting to grow flowers, I would suggest planting annuals first and adding roses in year two or three. But once you have your systems in place, roses will become one of your most valuable crops.

I cover rose growing in detail in my Seed to Vase online course, along with everything else you need to grow successfully for cutting. The course includes a members' community where you can ask questions, share photos, and learn from growers across the UK. If you are serious about growing, it is the single best investment you can make.