How to choose the best bare root roses

Late autumn to early spring is the UK’s bare root season, and it’s the best time to buy and plant roses. Lifted from the field while dormant, bare root roses are a cost-effective way to fill your garden with scent and colour. 

This year, our horticultural team has introduced a wide choice of new and special varieties to T&M’s bare root rose collection. Whether you’re looking for a bush, climbing, hybrid tea or floribunda rose, learn more about the new and exciting bare root varieties that you can snap up now, ahead of container season…

Browse our full range of bare root roses for inspiration.

What are the advantages of bare root roses?

The bare root season typically runs from November to March, providing a golden window for buying and planting bare root roses. Lifted from the field when dormant, the stems are usually about 6-12 inches long and are dispatched without any soil. Planting at this time allows the roots to establish over winter, resulting in a more robust and flower-laden display from their first summer.

Planting bare root roses gives you:

• Wider selection: Buying bare root gives you access to a wider choice of roses, including the most popular new varieties that sell out quickly in pots.
• Vigorous growth: A head-start on root establishment leads to noticeably more vigorous top growth next season.
• Better value for money: Bare root plants are sent out with less compost and less plastic making them more sustainable and economical.

Three best bare root roses for scent

Roses are often chosen for their beautiful scent, although not all types are fragrant. If you’re looking for intense fragrance, here are some of T&M’s new bare root varieties to try:

1. Rose ‘Minerva’: This floribunda rose has an impressive display of up to 40 mauve, ruffle-edged blooms per stem, each carrying a sweetly intense perfume. Its compact, bushy habit is perfect for borders and containers and it flowers repeatedly from summer until autumn.
2. Rose ‘Sweet Romantica’: This hybrid tea rose has stunning double blooms that unfurl in soft pink and warm apricot tones. With a powerful fragrance reminiscent of citrus and honeysuckle, this rose flowers repeatedly until autumn, blending timeless charm with modern disease resistance.
3. Rose ‘Raspberry Cupcake’: This hybrid tea rose produces large, cup-like flowers in an exquisite two-tone pink that smell of raspberry and lemon. It’s a repeat-flowering variety that performs from late spring until autumn, earning multiple awards for its delightful scent and remarkable disease resistance.

Three best bare root roses for containers

You don’t need a large cottage garden to grow roses. Many compact varieties are perfectly suited to containers and patio-growing. Here are some of the best new bare root varieties to plant in pots:

1. Rose ‘Queen Bee’: This floribunda rose is a beautiful and compact variety that’s perfect for patio containers. Flowering from June until September, it produces clusters of large, double, amber-yellow blooms that are adored by pollinators.
2. Rose ‘Darling’: This floribunda rose lends a soft, romantic feel to any garden, with clusters of pink, double blooms that subtly fade to a softer shade as they mature. Charming and compact, its delicate spicy fragrance is a wonderful addition to a sunny patio.
3. Rose ‘Mango’: This floribunda rose is a highly floriferous, low-growing variety that brings a warm, tropical glow to any setting. Clusters of semi-double blooms appear in mellow peach, orange, and yellow, bringing a light, fruity fragrance to your container display.

Three best award-winning bare root roses

With so many bare root roses from which to choose, award-winning varieties are always a good place to start. T&M’s Gavin Shaw has been keeping a keen eye on the ‘Rose of the Year’ competition to see which varieties emerged victorious. “Because entries are tested at trial stations nationwide over two years, you can trust that any winner will thrive in our UK climate,” he explains. Along with the latest ‘Rose of the Year’ winner, here are our horticultural team’s favourites:

1. Rose ‘Coral Garden’ was named Rose of the Year 2026 for good reason. Prized for its robust health, reliable regrowth and strong stems, this floribunda variety produces an abundance of ruffled, sweetly-scented, apricot-pink blooms with copper centres that don’t require deadheading.
2. Rose ‘Green With Envy’: This striking floribunda rose is a rare and unique cultivar with semi-double blooms that open in vibrant, eye-catching lime green before deepening as they mature. Blooming from spring to autumn, this award-winning rose is celebrated for its excellent longevity, both in the garden and as a cut flower.
3. Rose ‘Pink Flower Carpet’: For an inexhaustible carpet of rich pink blooms from June until the first frosts, this gorgeous ground-cover rose is an easy-to-grow choice. Whether cascading over banks, softening walls, or spilling out of containers, it’s easy to see why it appears in the Rose Hall of Fame and has an RHS Award of Garden Merit.

How to plant bare root roses

With a few helpful tips, bare root roses are easy to grow. Open the packaging as soon as your bare root plants arrive, and plant them as quickly as possible. Here’s how:

• Hydrate: Soak the roots in a bucket of water for a couple of hours before planting.
• Improve the soil: Dig a hole large enough to accommodate the roots without bending. Mix the excavated soil with plenty of well-rotted compost and a specialised rose feed.
• Position: Plant so the graft union (the slight knuckle where the stems meet the roots) is just below soil level.
• Firm in: Backfill, firm the soil gently with your heel, and water well. Mother Nature will take care of the rest over the winter!

Looking for more information about growing these popular cottage garden plants? Our article about planting roses in autumn is a great place to start, and our roses masterclass also contains a wealth of practical tips. For even more advice and inspiration, head over to our dedicated roses hub page.