I couldn’t go another week through summer without mentioning roses, a little late this year in producing their spectacular floral display but now they are out they look magnificent and you encourage them to flower all summer long with a bit of care and attention if you follow a few simple rules.

Using these five tips will ensure your roses put on a show-stopping display:

Deadhead: Deadhead roses regularly, otherwise plants will set seed rather than make more flowers. Healthy stems only need the flower head removing, but weak ones need cutting back hard, to encourage new growth. Prune to where stems are at least pencil thick, even if it means removingm almost the entire shoots. Always cut above a healthy, full-sized leaf, that’s where the hormones concentrate, so the plant is able to produce a new flowering shoot quickly. Deadheading applies to all your flowers in the garden now to encourage more flowers, I try to do this job while I’m watering, plucking the dead heads off with one hand whilst watering with the other.

Feed and mulch: Mulch roses in spring and autumn, with well-rotted compost or manure. Feed them in summer with a feed containing potash and magnesium for better blooming. Prevent mildew developing on foliage by watering regularly, directing your watering at the base of the plant.

Provide support: Support old-fashioned shrub roses by placing poles around the plants and tying stems to them. Train compact climbers and ramblers up pergola poles, vertical pillars or an obelisk. Standard roses also need supporting. Replace the original cane with a stronger stake and use tree ties to secure them.

Control diseases: Choose disease-resistant varieties to avoid blackspot, mildew and rust, though in warm and humid summers, even disease-resistant varieties can be affected. Rake up and remove fallen rose leaves to reduce the risk of reinfection, and use a fungicide if necessary.

Choose the right rose: Before being seduced by a pretty picture, consider which rose is best for your garden. Old-fashioned varieties rarely flower all summer long, while modern ones do. Order bare-root plants in summer for delivery in autumn.

I love scented roses and my mother gave me two, which are my absolute favourites, they are:

Rosa ‘Compassion’ – a large and vigorous climbing rose to 3m, with glossy dark foliage on red stems, and fragrant, shapely, double, pink-tinged, coppery-apricot flowers 10cm in width.

Also Rosa ‘Ena Harkness’ a climbing, Hybrid Tea rose with an apple fragrance displaying velvet-red flowers from late spring until summer.