top tips for picking and arranging roses

Written by:
Sarah Raven
Last updated:

Roses make beautiful cut flowers but it helps to know some basics on how to pick them and advice on arranging roses for the best effect.

Picking roses

  • The trick with roses is to pick them early in the morning.
  • Then strip the stems of the lower leaves, nip the bottom of the stems and plunge them up to their necks in cold water and Chrysal, a commercial flower food, to maximise vase life. You can use a pinch of bicarbonate of soda, an aspirin or a spoonful of sugar but Chrysal does the work of all three.
  • Then keep them in a cool place, never letting them stand in direct sunlight.
  • If the heads flop at any stage - even after a couple of days - sear the stem end in boiling water. Many will then perk up and last another couple of days.

Arranging roses

  • Certain roses, such as Princess Alexandra, have good, strong stems, but I find most are happiest and last longest with their stems cut short. This helps even heavy-headed and glamorous, but short vase-life roses, such as 'Madame Isaac Pereire' and 'Madame Grégoire Staechelin'.
  • To arrange these, thread the short, seared stem through a wooden noughts-and-crosses grid. This can be made from bamboo canes, dogwood or hazel from the garden, tied into 2-3in squares.
  • Rest the grid on top of any shallow bowl or dish.
  • Ten or 15 heads of this particular rose (which last 2-3 days on a long stem) will then make a fantastic table centre which lasts nearly a week.

These look particularly beautiful in a glass trough, or with delicate Ammi majus, Alchemilla mollis, Astrantia major, and white foxgloves.

Find more ideas in Sarah's book, The Cutting Garden.