My new rose has very large, fragrant blooms but I am concerned that they tend to hang their heads. I thought that roses were meant to have upward-facing flowers?
All roses will take a few seasons to reach their mature shape and size. Large-flowered varieties in particular tend to get better and better over their first two or three years as the stems become thicker, providing greater support for their heavy blooms. Prune them back in winter by no more than a half, as this is important in enabling the stems to thicken. Feed twice each year with a slow-release, organically-based fertilizer. Hybrid tea roses were traditionally bred to have upward-facing blooms. While there is, without doubt, a place for hybrid tea roses, David Austin’s aim in breeding has always been to increase the diversity in roses and to preserve the charming characteristics found in the old garden roses. As a result, some of our favourite and most popular varieties have large, deeply-cupped blooms. These nod gracefully on their stems to face us, with a natural poise we so admire. In the garden they perform a similar role to peonies, but have a much longer flowering season. The
