Breathtakingly beautiful and with a long flowering season, roses take pride of place in the summer garden.

There are very few gardeners who can resist the appeal of roses. They are the star performers in a summer garden, and, with a bit of care and attention, will reward you with months of colourful blooms.

Ideally, roses like a position in the garden that receives at least six hours of full sun a day. Top rose grower, Ludwig Taschner, says, "It has to do with how much light falls on how large a leaf surface. Roses growing in a slightly shady position, i.e. east of a house, wall or tall shrubs, in dappled shade, or at the edge of trees will develop much larger leaves than those growing in full sun. Even more shade will reduce the quantities of flowers and the leaves will become soft and are more susceptible to fungal disease."

"Roses are known to be waterholics," says Ludwig. "The more water available at root level, the more growth can be expected. However, the soil condition and the initial soil preparation vary in every garden and the common advice of 20 litres of water per week per roses bush should be overridden by applying common sense. Sandy soil requires watering more often, even daily, whereas clay soil might hold water even too long, not allowing air to circulate at root level. Roses love water in motion. They cannot grow in standing water. In fact more roses die from drowning then they do from under-watering."

Immediately after planting your rose bush, Ludwig advises that the fresh soil around the roses needs to be soaked with water. After this a little water every second or third day will suffice until the bushes are showing signs of new active growth when watering has to be increased.

Roses benefit from regular monthly fertilising. "Before a next flush of flowers can appear, new stems and leaves need to be produced. The quality of the new shoots determines the quality of the blooms," says Ludwig. Any manure, fertiliser or compost you applied in July will be used up in October and rose roots are not that vigorous to spread out finding new resources of nutrients, so make sure you feed roses regularly.

10 best roses for the vase

1. 'Black Berry' - Truly black rose with firm petals that are virtually impervious to our hot sun. Can produce up to 50 or more blooms at one time.
2. 'Black Magic' - Velvet red flowers that are almost black.
3. 'Burning Sky' - Purple rose with red edges.
4. 'Hot Cacao' - Brick-coloured flowers which have darker edges that bloom all summer and into autumn.
5. 'Johannesburg Sun' - Very long shapely, pointed buds with a distinct fragrance in a true gold colour.
6. 'Just Beautiful' - Large copper- to peach-coloured blooms on long, thin stems.
7. 'Monica' - Florist quality, long pointed stems of a creamy gold with glowing orange inside the petals.
8. 'Nataniel' - Perfectly shaped white buds on long strong stems.
9. 'Ryk Neethling' - Classical, large creamy gold blooms on a proud, tall growing bush.
10. 'Tineke' - Full, shape immaculate white blooms suitable for a white wedding.

10 best roses for hanging baskets & containers

1. 'Deloitte & Touche' - A mixture of peach, apricot and orange undertones in the fragrant blooms. Flowers prolifically.
2. 'Fiery Sunsation' - Luminous semi-double, fairly large blooms that do not discolour.
3. 'Flower Carpet' - Ground-covering rose that flowers for long periods. Choose from 'Amber', 'Apple Blossom', 'Coral', 'Pink', 'Red' and 'White'.
4. 'Granny's Delight' - Bright pink, full, rosette-shaped blooms.
5. 'My Granny' - A spreading shrub rose with delicate pink blooms. Flowers for months on end.
6. 'Peach Sunsation' - Peach tinted pompoms group themselves together in attractive bouquets.
7. 'Red Cascade' - Full red double blooms and glossy foliage.
8. 'Sweet Chariot' - Highly scented miniature with double pompom shaped flowers come in various shades of lavender, lilac and purple.
9. 'The Fairy' - Sprays of light pink, small semi double, firm petaled flowers throughout summer into winter.
10. 'Waterwise Blush' - Multitude of small, long, pointed buds. Light pink maturing to pale white.

10 best roses for showy blooms

1. 'Andrea Stelzer' - Large pointed, clear pink blooms.
2. 'Brigadoon' - An excellent exhibition rose, the colour is cream-yellow at the base with blends of pink, coral and orange as the blooms are exposed.
3. 'Delicate Beauty' - A classic beauty with tight pointed buds of light cream-yellow.
4. 'Elegant Beauty' - Long classical pointed buds with unusual pale yellow petals.
5. 'Esther Geldenhuys' - Coral in colour with the ability to stay fresh on the bush and in the vase.
6. 'Five Roses' - Large exhibition type red blooms. Beautiful in the garden and grows well in pots.
7. 'Irish Luck' - Lime-yellow in colour this rose produces big, exhibition quality blooms.
8. 'Maria Theresa' - One of the finest exhibiting roses with attractive full bodied orange-red blooms.
9. 'Touch of Class' - Classical and elegant warm pink shaded with coral & cream blooms.
10. 'Vera Johns' - A good garden rose, salmon deepening to orange in colour.

10 best roses for arches, pillars & trellises

1. 'Blossom Time' - Cameo pink, medium sized elegant blooms, vigorous growth which may be trained a long a fence, forms a 2 m high, willowy shrub. One of the most floriferous & repeat flowering climbers.
2. 'Cocktail' - Large, single blooms, crimson with a golden eye.
3. 'Cherry Garland' - Produce clusters of medium sized, fully petalled blooms of a cherry-red colour.
4. 'Don Juan' - Born singly or in clusters with full double blooms that are velvet red.
5. 'Fairest Cape Panarosa' - Maintenance free shrub that flowers all season.
6. 'Gold Bunny' - A deep yellow climber with blooms of a pleasing rose shape & firm, almost unfading petals.
7. 'Joseph's Coat' - Medium-sized, shapely yellow buds open, changing to orange-red and pink.
8. 'The Ridge School' - Vigorous and grows into a shrub of 2m height and almost the same width. Deep mauve, fragrant blooms.
9. 'Ubuntu Panarosa' - Clusters of yellow shapely pointed buds that open into apricot-pink centres.
10. 'Wedding Garland' - A climber with strong fragrant blooms. Free standing it will grow to 2.5m before garlanding.

15 best roses for fragrance

1. 'Arctic Ice' - Lilac blooms with a strong fruit fragrance.
2. 'Bewitched' - Attractive clear phlox-pink blooms with a strong fragrance.
3. Burgundy 'Iceberg' - Showy clusters of burgundy blooms with a honey fragrance.
4. 'Burning Sky'- Purple roses with a red edge and a strong fragrance.
5. 'Duftwolke' - Orange to coral red blooms. Highly fragrant.
6. 'Electron' - Classical pink rose with an exceptional fragrance.
7. 'Garden and Home' - Bunches of apricot and gold coloured blooms.
8. 'Heidi Klum' - Floriferous rose, with compact growth. The colour of the flowers is predominantly dark purple with a pink tinge. Strong fragrance.
9. 'Honey Dijon' - A strong grower which flowers prolifically. It bears mustard-coloured blooms with a honey fragrance.
10. 'New Zealand' - Salmon-pink, full bodied blooms.
11. 'Papa Meilland' - Velvety dark red roses. Strong fragrance.
12. 'Perfume Passion' - Strong fragrance that wafts freely from the large pink shaded blooms.
13. 'Sasol' - Butter-gold blooms that have a sweet liquorice perfume.
14. 'Spiced Coffee' - Unsurpassed in colour this interesting rose is a blend of pale amber flushed with lavender and pink.
15. 'Zulu Royal' - Bears a constant supply of flowering stems. Blooms are deep mauve in colour with silver lilac.

15 best roses for small spaces

1. 'Dazzling Beauties' - A blend of yellow-orange gold and red with a never ending supply of blooms.
2. 'Delicate Sunsation' - Deep cream with a faint pink fading to white in colour Fragrant blooms with several layers of petals.
3. 'Forever Yellow' - Accustomed to hot sun with semi-double blooms with virtually no ageing or fading.
4. 'Gnome World' - Coral to salmon-coloured flowers.
5. 'Jealous Joey' - Pompom shaped blooms, can be grown in a pot or garden.
6. 'Katja' - Clusters of rosette-shaped pink roses.
7. 'Lava Glow' - Deep velvet red roses that should be planted in groups for best effect.
8. 'Little Pink Hedge' - When planted in a row it forms a clear pink low flowering hedge.
9. 'Little Red Hedge' - Small, pointed buds of clear carmine-red will form a dense little red hedge in no time.
10. 'Miss Daisy' - Butter-yellow flowers.
11. 'Ocarina' - Considered the best miniature to date, bears vermilion pink blooms.
12. 'Petite Michelle' - Bright pink blooms.
13. 'Red Manikin' - Very compact yet free flowering rose with single bright red blooms.
14. 'Vanilla Whiz' - Snow white blooms. Very floriferous.
15. 'Xanadu' - Pink roses with darker pink paintbrush strokes.