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From Field to Garden

Discover how a Peter Beales Rose is grown. All our roses take nearly two years from the time that the rootstocks are planted in the field, to the time your chosen rose is ready to be planted in your own garden ...

In April new rootstocks are planted into fresh, previously unused rose fields. These rootstock plants are used as ‘hosts’ and are chosen for their vigour and reliability. Later, once the budding process has taken place, the host plants will develop into the individual varieties required.
Over the coming months the rootstocks establish and then during the summer the budding season begins. Budwood is collected from the previous year’s rose field for every variety within our extensive collection. This is known as ‘wood cutting’ and is a rigorous process as each variety is hand cut and de-thorned. The bud is then carefully removed and inserted into the host rootstock. Each rose is budded by hand, a painstaking task that takes several weeks to complete.
In the following January growth from the rootstock is then individually hand cut back hard, this encourages all of the plant’s energy to go into the inserted bud. In spring new growth will start to appear from the inserted bud. In April and May the new shoots are manually cut back again, this in turn encourages further shoots to break from the graft, producing a bushier, healthier and well-structured plant.
The roses will continue to grow and flower through the summer and will be used to produce the budwood stock for the next season’s plants, thus we always have two crops of roses in the ground, creating a constant cycle.
In September the roses are then trimmed back and climbers and ramblers are tied in to prepare for the lifting season which will start sometime in October when the roses are dormant.
By November, the plants are ready to be lifted and sold as either bare root plants, or to be potted up as the following year’s container rose stock. During November, December and January we hand pot many thousands of roses into containers.
All in all it takes about two years from the time that the rootstocks are planted into the field to the time your chosen rose is ready to be planted in your own garden...

YEAR 1

Fig. 1 - In the first year rootstocks are planted into the fields in April.
Fig. 2 - Wood cutting of last season’s plants takes place during the summer to collect buds for the new crop.
Fig. 3 - Budwood is carefully selected and cut by hand for each individual variety of rose.
Fig. 4 - The buds are carefully removed from the budwood using a special budding knife.

From Field to Garden Year 1 - Fig.1, Fig.2, Fig.3 & Fig.4

Fig. 5 - Once the bud has been cut from the stem the excess is removed leaving just the bud.
Fig. 6 - Using the budding knife a ‘T’ shape is carefully cut into the rootstock and the bud is inserted.
Fig. 7 - A biodegradable tie is immediately fastened over the bud to keep dirt out as well as ensuring that the bud is secure.
Fig. 8 - Each rose is budded by hand over the course of several weeks during the summer.

From Field to Garden Year 1 - Fig.5, Fig.6, Fig.7 & Fig.8

YEAR 2

Fig. 9 - In January the growth is cut back hard to encourage all the energy to go into the inserted bud.
Fig. 10 - By spring new growth will start to appear from the bud, turning the plant into the desired variety.
Fig. 11 - In late spring new shoots are cut back to encourage more shoots to create a bushier plant.
Fig. 12 - The young roses start to produce several shoots, which will supply the framework for an attractive mature plant.

From Field to Garden Year 2 - Fig.9, Fig.10, Fig.11 & Fig.12

Fig. 13 - The young roses grow quickly and their different foliage characteristics are clearly visible.
Fig. 14 - Most varieties flower in their first summer and all varieties will be used to supply budwood for the next season’s crop.
Fig. 15 - The roses are trimmed back in September in preparation for the bare root season.
Fig. 16 - Lifting of the roses begins sometime in October, just as the roses are becoming dormant.

From Field to Garden Year 2 - Fig.13, Fig.14, Fig.15 & Fig.16

Fig. 17 - The roses are hard pruned, tied and labelled.
Fig. 18 - Lifting continues through the winter and can be affected by bad weather, making it difficult to lift the roses.
Fig. 19 - The roses are then sorted for both bare root orders and for potting as container stock.

YEAR 3

Fig. 20 - Roses potted into containers will later become available around springtime.

From Field to Garden Year 2 - Fig.17, Fig.18, Fig.19 & Year 3 - Fig.20

When buying a Peter Beales rose, you can be confident that our passion for roses has gone into nurturing your plant. Lovingly cultivated by our experts, we ensure that your rose has had the best start in life, you can be reassured that a strong, robust first grade plant is handpicked for delivery to you, by one of our rose team.
We take pride in being world leaders in classic roses and are delighted to be able to offer one of the largest collections of roses commercially within the UK. With over 800 different varieties to choose from, many of which are rare and only available from us in the UK, Peter Beales are the obvious choice when considering any new rose for your garden

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