Once-flowering roses carry an air of tradition, a reminder of old gardens where their brief but magnificent display was the highlight of summer. They bloom on wood made the year before, so pruning them is a matter of patience and respect for their natural rhythm.

Guest blog by Helen Cross - Author, Journalist, Presenter, and School Gardening Champion. At the start of every gardening session with a new group of children, I always ask them what flower, fruit, or vegetable they would like to grow in their school garden. You might be surprised, but over the last five years, three or four out of every ten children have told me they want to grow roses.

Roses climbing up a trellis or rambling across a wall are some of the most romantic sights in any garden. While both climbing and rambling roses can transform a space with their graceful growth and blooms, understanding the difference between them and how to care for each is essential.

Roses sometimes show signs of illness that can be easy to mistake for one another. Two common problems are downy mildew and blackspot. Both affect foliage and can weaken the plant, yet they present differently and thrive under distinct conditions. Recognising these differences allows gardeners to respond appropriately and preserve the health and beauty of their roses.

In recent years, many gardeners have begun to rethink the compost they use to protect Britain's ancient peatlands. At David Austin^®, we have been working with peat-free compost for over fifteen years, and we now grow every rose in a 100% peat-free medium. With a few simple adjustments, you can do the same at home.

David Austin^® Roses are loved for their beauty and character, yet they serve two very different purposes. Our garden roses are created to live and flourish outdoors, returning year after year with timeless colour, fragrance and charm. Our Wedding Roses by contrast, are grown exclusively for the floral industry, crafted to create exquisite bouquets and floral arrangements for life’s most memorable moments.

When we picture allotments, most of us think of tidy rows of beans and brassicas, the glint of fruit cages, and perhaps a weathered shed with a kettle always warm. Roses are seldom part of that picture. Yet they deserve a place in such spaces, bringing scent, colour and gentle structure in ways that support both the eye and the ecosystem.

The Gertrude Jekyll^® rose is known and loved for its rich, classic fragrance and those beautifully shaped old-fashioned blooms. Though it began in England, gardeners in very different parts of the world have welcomed it into their gardens with equal affection. To celebrate this special rose, we reached out to growers in Japan, Italy and the United States to hear how Gertrude Jekyll^® grows and blooms in their own climates and garden styles.

In the quiet town of Woodbury, Connecticut, sits the Old Glebe House Museum, an 18th-century parsonage with a remarkable story to tell. Within its grounds lies something truly special: one of only three gardens in the United States designed by the legendary British plants woman, Gertrude Jekyll. It is also the only one fully realised according to her original plan.

Gertrude Jekyll. For many today, the name belongs to a rose - rich pink, deeply fragrant, always dependable. But long before it was attached to one of David Austin’s finest creations, it belonged to a woman whose influence shaped the English garden itself. She was not flamboyant, not loud, but she left an imprint that endures quietly in the folds of herbaceous borders and the soft haze of summer blooms.

It’s something that catches gardeners out time and again. A rose you’ve grown before, chosen for its particular shade, opens in a colour that seems unfamiliar. Maybe it’s paler. Maybe there’s a flush of pink where there wasn’t one before. Maybe the whole bloom looks like it belongs to another plant altogether.

Few roses are held in such regard as Gertrude Jekyll^® (Ausbord). Valued for its rich, mid-pink blooms and one of the strongest Old Rose fragrances in cultivation, it has become a familiar name among gardeners. Yet it is not only the scent that secures its place. This is a rose with structure, presence and the ability to draw planting together. It offers more than a single season’s beauty. It gives shape to the garden and settles easily among other plants, whether used in formal arrangements or in looser, more naturalistic schemes.