Rose bushes go through different stages of growth throughout the year. They will look different as they move from their dormant phase in the winter to being in full bloom during the summer.
Take a look at our Seasonal Timeline below for a helpful visual guide on how your rose may look throughout the season. This is a general guide and will vary depending on the rose variety, plant age and seasonal weather conditions. For example; younger plants may take longer to establish as they are working on growing their roots and producing new foliage. Additionally, a cold and wet spring can result in dormant roses taking longer to wake up from their dormancy to produce leaves.
Timings may also vary depending on where you live. Generally, the south is milder, and may be up to six weeks ahead of those in the north. This post is a generalised overview, and should be used as only basic guidelines.
Winter #
During the winter, roses will be in their dormant phase. They will not have any leaves and will have been pruned down to protect them over the winter months. This will allow the rose plant to concentrate on establishing a healthy root system below the soil and focus its energy on producing new foliage in the spring.
Bare root roses are also available to purchase and plant over the winter.
Spring #
As the weather warms up, roses will start to emerge from their dormant stage and produce new leaf growth. Their stems will have been lightly pruned before the growing season starts and while the plant is still dormant. This will take off any tips that may have been damaged by frosts over the winter, and will help encourage new, healthy growth in the coming months when the rose begins to grow again.
This is a general guide and some roses may take some time to come out of dormancy depending on variety and weather conditions. A cold and wet spring can mean waking up from dormancy is delayed as they are not ready to produce new growth just yet. Once the weather starts to warm up, they will start producing new leaves, ready for a summer of beautiful blooms.
Spring is a transitional season and different varieties will grow at different rates. See our video below for a quick overview of how spring looks at English Roses!
Summer #
Roses in the summer months are well into their growing phase, and will have lots of foliage. They will also start to have buds and blooms appearing.
We will aim to send roses with blooms or buds when available, however as we regularly prune our roses to keep them in optimum health this will not always be possible. This also helps to encourage the plant to produce more flowers and foliage throughout the summer.
Please don’t worry if your rose arrives with no buds or blooms – as the warm weather continues they will soon appear!
Autumn #
At the start of the autumn, some rose varieties will continue to bloom while the weather is still warm. As the weather gets colder, rose bushes will start to go into their dormancy by losing their leaves. Please don’t worry that your rose is dying – this is their natural process to get ready for the winter. By losing their leaves, roses can conserve their energy to keep the root system healthy and alive during the cold winter ahead.
When the roses go into dormancy, our rose care team will prune down the rose to get it ready for the upcoming winter months; protecting it from strong wind. Towards the end of the autumn, they may have short stems and no foliage. This is so they are prepared for winter and ready to start blooming in the summers ahead.
