Roses for cold and wet locations

It’s tough to find any plants that thrive in cold, wet locations and roses are no different but there are a few considerations that will help to give you the best chances.

First make sure that you do your best to improve the soil with plenty of compost or well rotted manure, and if  it's very heavy, then consider adding some garden sand or grit to improve drainage.

When choosing your roses, look for single or semi double petalled flowers, as the fully petalled Old English type are susceptible to balling in wet conditions.  (Balling is where the rose flower is affected by wet weather and fails to open) One of our lovely Jane Austen roses ‘ Chawton Cottage’  would work well.

Also consider tough, persicaria type roses that seem to be able to cope with all types of ground fairly well and provide a starry eyed and beautiful display, such as ‘ For Your Eyes Only’