Seasonal Goals for Your Garden
Roses guide the pace of the garden year. Their summer display is shaped by a series of small, thoughtful tasks that unfold long before the first bloom appears. Each season offers its own moment to step in and help your roses flourish.
Winter is a time of rest.
The garden stands open and honest, and you can see each plant clearly. This is when pruning sets the structure for the months ahead, and bare root roses arrive ready to be planted into the cool soil. These tasks give shape to the growing season that follows.
Spring encourages roses to rise with new energy.
Feeding them now builds strength. Planting container roses enhances borders that need a lift, and mulching anchors moisture and nourishment where the roots can reach it. With every new leaf, the garden signals that the season is changing.
Summer feels like a reward.
Roses bloom generously, filling the air with scent. Deadheading keeps the display going, while deep watering supports the plants through warm, dry days. Gathering stems for the house brings part of the garden indoors.
Autumn invites reflection and gentle activity.
Clearing away fallen leaves keeps roses healthy before winter arrives. New roses can still be planted while the soil holds warmth, and taking stock of the year helps shape the choices you will make when the cycle begins again.
A Year in Roses
Working with roses across the seasons creates a garden full of character and continuity. Each season builds on the last, and the care you give now becomes the beauty you enjoy later. A year with roses is a year lived attentively.
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A Year With Roses: Seasonal goals for your gardenRoses guide the pace of the garden year. Their summer display is shaped by a series of small, thoughtful tasks that unfold long before the first bloom appears. Each season offers its own moment to step in and help your roses flourish.
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Why the Best Rose Gardens Begin in WinterWinter is often mistaken for an ending. Beds are bare, borders are quiet, and the garden appears to have paused. Yet for roses, winter is not an absence of growth but the moment when everything important begins. Beneath the soil and within each stem, the foundations of the coming year are already being laid.
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A Year in Bloom: Looking Back at 2025Some years in the garden feel especially full of movement and meaning, and 2025 was one of them. At David Austin®, we experienced moments that reminded us why we care so deeply for roses. New beginnings, early abundance and the introduction of a new rose for American gardeners shaped the rhythm of the season.
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Caring for Roses Through WinterWinter draws a different map across the garden. Borders lose their summer softness, the air grows crisp, and each plant stands in its true form. Roses, perhaps more than anything else, reveal their strength now. Their branches hold the memory of last season’s bloom, and beneath the soil they gather themselves for the next. Looking after them at this time of year becomes less a checklist of jobs and more a steady, reassuring conversation with the season ahead.
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Winter Solstice: Marking the Garden’s Midwinter PauseThe winter solstice arrives quietly, the shortest day slipping in with little ceremony. In the garden, everything feels suspended. Frost holds the edges of fallen leaves, the soil settles into its long exhale and even the familiar shapes of roses seem to rest. This stillness is not an ending but a pause, a moment when the year hesitates before turning back toward the light.
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Roses at Christmas: A Winter Bloom Through HistoryRoses and Christmas may seem unlikely companions, yet the flower has held a place in midwinter traditions for centuries. At a time of year when daylight is brief and the garden lies still, the rose has often stood for continuity, memory and the promise of renewal. Its presence, whether symbolic, preserved or coaxed into late bloom, has long brought a touch of grace to the festive season.
