At Hever Castle we have 4,000 roses in the Rose Garden itself and another 1,000 in the grounds so the job of dead heading is pretty unrelenting!

I am a fair man though and do share the task out among our number and do a stint myself. It’s actually very therapeutic work once you find your rhythm! When we dead head we like to cut down to the new leaf - we don’t just take off the spent bud.

It’s important to dead head your roses to promote new growth and flowers. If you fail to dead head then the rose will go to seed and stop flowering. We find that if we dead head every day then we can extend the season especially if we are lucky with the weather!

We had a right old downpour at the start of June - some of the roses looked like they’d gone 10 rounds with Anthony Joshua, but actually we were happy to sacrifice a few blooms as the plants really needed the inch of rain that fell.

You might think that roses are as tough as old boots but they do need water. You will see a plant suffer from lack of water a couple of months down the line rather than straight away.

Other problems to affect roses include blackspot, blackfly and greenfly. When it comes to blackfly and greenfly though we let the birds and aphids do their work. One week you can have totally clean leaves then the next week you can come in and there’s a mass of fly under the leaves.

We don’t panic though we just watch as the hoverflies, bees, ladybirds and birds do their work; they’re fantastic gardeners for us. If you’re eager to clear your roses of the fly - then take your thumb and forefinger and gently brush the leaves and squash the blighters!

Blackspot is something else entirely though. This fungus can really ruin the appearance of the rose leaf. We spray every two weeks in order to keep this at bay - there are lots of products in the garden centre to choose from.

Make sure that the conditions are right for spraying - it needs to be done either first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening to prevent the leaves from being scorched. You also need to pick a very still day. If you wet your finger and hold it up make sure you feel nothing at all, not even a light breeze. Avoid wet days too - only spray on dry days.

'Feeding rosses also provides an instant hit - rather like a can of Red Bull!'

It’s also important to make sure that the soil round the roses is clean and clear of debris as mouldy dropped leaves will encourage the fungus to keep going next season. Another key to promoting healthy roses is to feed them with a granular slow release food at the start of the season and after the first flush in July.

I like to think about it thus: we take vitamins and echinacea ourselves to ward off colds and to make them less likely - feeding roses helps make sure that if a rose does get attacked it will be less pronounced and they will be less likely to get ill.

Feeding them also provides an instant hit - rather like a can of Red Bull! Take your feed and draw a little circle with it around the base of the plant, make sure the feed doesn’t scorch the leaves.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that the humble rose is boring; there are so many to chose from so don’t be afraid to mix your floribundas with your shrub and hybrid tea’s. They come in all shapes and size - some hybrid tea’s have heads the size of a small dog!

Some highlights from the garden this year include Buxom Beauty which has produced an amazing scent this season and ‘Iceberg’ which has edged the walled rose garden to perfection this year with a host of white blooms.

Mama Mia is a great rose and if you’re feeling musical it goes well with the purple of the Moody Blue. Supertrooper in luminous orange produces quite a statement when planted en masse. I’m obviously biased but the Hever Rose is an absolute stunner - this amazing shrub rose produces repeat red blooms all season.

This year I brought back David Austin’s Anne Boleyn rose to Hever. We have planted 300 of the roses in the garden so 'she' will lose quite a few heads this season but hopefully my gardeners won’t lose theirs before the end of the season.

On my recent travels around Kent I particularly enjoyed Penshurst’s Tall Story rose which comes out yellow then goes white - in fact you smell it before you see it at Penshurst as the scent greets you as you turn the corner of the great house.

I’m often asked ‘why do you love roses so much?’ and it’s an easy question to answer - they’re one of the most rewarding plants you can grow.

It’s a fantastic place to be when the roses are at their peak of colour ; everywhere you look you see vibrant petals, shiny green leaves and you can smell nature’s very own perfumery as the fantastic mix of different scents brings joy to your heart.

Running at Hever Castle until Monday, July 3 is Hever in Bloom. Neil and his team will be leading tours of the Rose Garden during the event. Floral talks and workshops will also be held in the castle. More details here