Appearing on ITV’s Lorraine – on Thursday, February 6, 2025 – gardening guru Alan Titchmarsh said “it’s a good time” to plant roses.
“This time of year – trees, shrubs, roses – you can buy them bare root, dug up from the nursery,” Alan said on the daytime TV show.
While Alan said he “hates lecturing”, he did point out that purchasing bare root roses, for example, is a more affordable option than potted plants.
Acknowledging that container ground plants (i.e. potted plants) are “lovely”, Alan said they’re “generally more expensive”.
Considering the time of year, Alan said February is a good month to plant hedges, trees and roses.
If you already have a rose bush in your garden, pruning season begins in less than four weeks.
March to May is the ideal time to prune rose bushes, which Alan addressed previously in collaboration with Waitrose.
Appearing in a tutorial video, Alan said gardeners need a “good, sharp pair of secateurs”.
Demonstrating where to prune a rose bush on the video posted to YouTube, Alan said you should look out for a “little red bud” and cut just above it.
Any browned stems should be cut back to prevent further decay on the plant, which should turn into a beautiful bush come summer.
Alan promised that by pruning correctly, you would have a rose bush “smothered in flowers” that you could be proud of.
While the cut-back rose bush looks remarkably bare, Alan reassures, “Don’t be frightened; it will grow again.”
Eagle-eyed viewers may spot that Alan looks remarkably younger than his 75 years in the video, but that’s because it was made in 2014—although the pruning advice still applies today.
