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Nothing beautifies an estate with sophistication and fragrance more than a garden filled with roses. There's a defined elegance in the single rose and an even more divine atmosphere that illuminates from the garden filled with these crowning delights.

It isn't that great a task to plant a rose garden, but there is strategic planning and considerations involved in preparing the most proficient bed for them. Once the garden is planted, it's just general maintenance as usual to nurture and cultivate healthy rose plants.

First, you need to select a garden location for your roses where there is a lot of afternoon sunlight. A bit of shade is okay but they need mostly direct sun to produce their gorgeous blooms.

Secondly, the garden needs to have rich, well-drained soil. You shouldn't plant the roses in ground where puddles of water gather after watering or after a rainstorm. And at the same time, they shouldn't be planted in ground that is high and dry, because the roots need to be moist at all times.

Roses need to be planted in ground where they can drink the water but have any excess automatically drained from them.

Thirdly, the soil must be rich and refreshed. Choose a triple-mix soil that can be found available at almost any nursery. There are some mixes that are specifically prepared for high bloom plants such as roses. As someone at the nursery if they have that prepared mix already. Otherwise, the pre-packaged triple mix is ideal.

Planting: Dig a hole twice as wide and twice as deep as the rose root. If your soil is fresh then fill the hole with plain warm water and let it drain into the ground. If you are not using fresh soil, add rose food to the water first. Magic Grow offers excellent products.

Add loose soil into the hole and place the root in so that it will be completely covered with soil, and so that the first green shoot will be above the ground. You may need to add more soil to lift it up to that point.

Pack the soil down firmly around the root so that there are no air pockets. Air pockets around the root will prevent the root from growing and the plant could die.

Create a trench around the plant so that any water poured onto the plant will not run away and into the garden but rather, will be trapped around the plant to be soaked into the ground where the rose is planted.

Then add another litre or so of water onto the ground around the rose plant. Again, if the soil is fresh you do not need to add food to the water, but if the soil is not fresh you do need to add it.

Water your plant twice a day for the first week or so. This keeps the soil around the roots moist so that they can relax and start to grow. After this, water only once a day in the morning. And feed with rose food bi-weekly.

Tip: Do not water your rose plants in the evening. Roses only absorb water during the daylight hours. If you water them when the sun has gone down, the water will not be absorbed but will linger around the root until it is drained, and this could bring on root rot.

As well, if you wet the leaves when watering them, the day breeze and the sun will dry them off. But if you water them constantly when the air is cooler and it's dark, the leaves are left wet and will begin to rot or become infected with a virus and you could lose your plant.

Learn more about this author, Ronnie Dauber.
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