Romance with a potted rose this Valentine's Day

Roses are a traditional gift for Valentine's Day, but a bunch of cut roses will be gone so quickly. Consider a growing gift of a potted rose that will live for years and be a beautiful reminder of your heartfelt love.

Here's how to keep your potted rose looking fabulous:

1. Trim off spent flowers regularly to keep the rose looking tidy and encourage more flowers to develop.

2. Feed potted roses each week with a rose fertiliser.

3. Potted roses can dry out rapidly in hot summer weather, so make sure you water them regularly.

4. Watch out for pests and diseases - they can ruin both leaves and flowers.

If you have roses growing in your garden already and gave them a summer prune right now, you'll soon start to see a wonderful flush of new leaves and flower buds. But beware, all that lovely fresh growth can attract sap-sucking insect pests like aphids.

Weekly applications of a rose liquid plant food will help support new foliage and flower growth. Spreading a layer of mulch around the root zone will also help keep the soil moist.

Angie Thomas is a horticulturalist at Yates.