10 award-winning roses for your garden

Nurseries that breed roses are increasingly developing selections that are pest and disease-resistant. They don’t spray their roses in development, and discard those that become infected. As a result they introduce only the healthiest.

Here are 10 roses, both old and new, that are both unusually healthy and have been awarded the RHS Recommended: Award of Garden Merit.

Gorgeous ground cover

Healthy and tolerant of summer heat, this is a rose for the future

The whole Flower Carpet Series of ground cover roses, currently numbering thirteen selections, is known for its disease resistance and Rosa Flower Carpet Amber(‘Noa97400a’) combines this with good performance in unusually hot summers. Its semi-double flowers open in orange yellow with a brighter yellow centre and mature to soft pink with peachy overtones. They are held in 30cm (12in) wide clusters of up to 45 flowers. Ground cover. 90cm (3ft). Hardiness rating H6.

A superb climber

A David Austin 2002 release

Rosa The Generous Gardener (‘Ausdrawn’) is a climbing rose with glossy green leaves and strongly scented, semi-double, pale pink flowers, reminiscent of waterlilies. It is repeat-flowering from midsummer to autumn, and reaches an impressive height of up to 4.5m high (14.7ft). Hardiness rating: H6.

Prolific single flowers

Loved by bees, this rose has many open-faced flowers over a long period in summer

Sometimes listed as a Polyantha, but more correctly a Hybrid

A plant produced by crossing two distinct parents, often different species, to produce offspring that combine the characteristics of both. Hybrids can occur naturally, but crosses are often made deliberately by plant breeders to produce plants with better yield, improved flowering or vigour, or improved disease resistance.

Musk, the generous profusion of single flowers makes Rosa ‘Ballerina’stand out. Each flower is dark pink as it opens, then develops a white eye which enlarges as the flower matures until only a rim of pink remains. The result is that each prolific cluster features every stage of colouring. Hybrid Musk. 1.5m (5ft). Hardiness rating H6.

Flowers, foliage and fragrance

This rose’s delicate, pure white flowers belie its tough constitution

Rugosa roses are amongst the most healthy of all, and Rosa ‘Blanche Double de Coubert’is one of the best. Semi-double, richly scented, pure white flowers open over an extended season and are followed by large orange hips and bright yellow autumn leaf colour. Also, it tolerates poor soils, drought and neglect – but is very thorny. 1.5m (5ft). Hardiness rating H7.

Rampant rambler

A wonderfully scented, vigorous rose: just don’t plant it in a small garden

There are a number of superb, unusually healthy rambling roses that produce large clusters of small flowers and Rosa ‘Bobbie James’ is one of the finest. The huge flower clusters are packed with masses of yellow-centred white blooms with their heady, musky fragrance which are followed by small orange hips. Found as a seedling in a Yorkshire garden by the famous rosarian Graham Thomas. Rambler. 5m (16ft). Hardiness rating H6.

Buff and beautiful

Warm apricot flowers fade to a multitude of other colours as they age

Making an arching and elegant shrub,Rosa ‘Buff Beauty’develops rather open clusters of fully double flowers in attractive tones of buff, apricot, honey, and yellow tinted with orange – you get the picture – and they may even fade to cream in hot conditions. The powerful fragrance is very appealing and ‘Buff Beauty’ is noted for its prolific late flush of autumn flowers. Hybrid Musk. 2m (6½ft). Hardiness rating H6.

English elegance

With good form and beautifully shaped flowers ‘Charlotte’ makes an excellent garden plant

Many of David Austin’s English Roses show unusually good disease resistance and Rosa Charlotte (‘Auspoly’) is a fine representative. A seedling of the universally-admired Graham Thomas (‘Ausmas’), its raiser suggests that in some ways it is a better variety as it makes a small plant and its slightly paler, beautifully formed, soft yellow colouring is more useful in the garden. Has a strong tea fragrance. English Rose. 90cm (3ft). Hardiness rating H6.

Multiple award winner

If you’d like to try growing roses in pots, try Lucky!

In 2009 Rosa Lucky!(‘Frylucy’) was voted Rose Of The Year, and with good reason. This neat, yet impressively prolific, Floribunda produces a long succession of elegantly shaped, well-scented flowers in a lovely rich but soft shade of lilac pink. Valuable in borders, its compact bushy habit, its overwhelming display and its general resilience also makes it useful in large containers. Floribunda. 90cm (3ft). Hardiness rating H6.

Strongly scented

Flowers well throughout summer and autumn

Rosa A Whiter Shade of Pale (‘Peafanfare’) is a compact, free-flowering rose with healthy, glossy foliage, and bears scrolled buds opening to the palest of pink double blooms. Its strong scent is powerful while flowering through summer and autumn. Grows to around 60-90cm (196-295ft) in height. Hardiness rating: H6.

The long, elegantly-shaped buds of Rosa Silver Anniversary (‘Poulari’) open to pure white, lightly scented flowers with a hint of primrose yellow at the heart set attractively against pale green foliage. Held singly or in small clusters, the flowers show off their qualities best, and the plant develops the best habit, in fertile soil and in relatively sunny and dry conditions. Hybrid Tea. 1.5m (5ft). Hardiness rating H6.

Buy roses from RHS Plants

Super-scented miniature

Somewhat unusually for a patio rose, ‘Sweet Magic’ has a strong fragrance

Combining a wonderful fragrance with a healthy constitution, unusual in a patio rose, Rosa Sweet Magic (‘Dicmagic’) was joint Rose Of The Year in 1987. Large clusters of deep golden orange flowers open in continual flushes all summer, each 4cm (1½in) bloom developing pink tinges as it matures and set effectively against dark green foliage. Good in containers or at the front of a patio border. Miniature Patio. 45cm (1.5ft). Hardiness rating H6.