Nine of the best shrub roses

One of the best qualities of shrub roses is their capacity for producing a continual supply of flowers, with little deadheading required. They're usually in flower from June until the first frosts, so you're never short of blooms to enjoy outdoors and indoors.

Rosa 'Chinatown'

Like all floribunda roses, 'Chinatown' is a robust, disease-resistant variety with flowers produced in clusters. The warm yellow flowers of this large variety have a lovely peach fragrance.

Height x spread: 1.5m x 90cm.

'Burgundy Ice'

Also known as 'Prose', 'Burgundy Ice' is a sumptuously coloured floribunda rose, with deep, magenta-violet coloured flowers and a light fragrance. Try combining it with contrasting pale or warm-toned flowers to bring out the colour.

H x S: 100cm x 80cm.

'Grace'

Rosa 'Grace' is a divine English shrub rose with apricot-coloured blooms that have hints of pink. It has an arching growth habit and looks great growing in a large container or in the border alongside purple-flowered plants like Rosa 'Hippolyte', Verbascum 'Violetta' and Campanula glomerata.

H x S: 1.5m x 100cm.

'Nostalgia'

'Nostalgia' is a lovely hybrid tea rose with unusual flowers that are pink-red when closed, opening to reveal creamy white centres and with a gentle fragrance. The foliage is a deep, glossy green.

H x S: 100cm x 75cm.

'Hot Chocolate'

How to grow shrub roses — Rose 'Hot Chocolate'

A standout floribunda variety, 'Hot Chocolate' has fabulous smokey-red blooms held in clusters. The growth is strong and foliage a lustrous green. Good planting partners include Salvia verticillata and Trollius 'Golden Queen'.

H x S: 100cm x 100cm.

'Great Expectations'

This graceful variety has highly scented blooms that are a luminescent blend of pink and pale orange. As a floribunda rose, 'Great Expectations' has flowers held in clusters. It has a compact and bushy growth habit.

H x S: 100cm x 80cm.

'Boscobel'

'Boscobel' is a particularly exuberant variety with large, pink and perfectly formed flowers with a rich fragrance. Orange eremurus and purple nepeta make lovely, colourful planting partners.

H x S: 1.2m x 100cm.

'Scarborough Fair'

This pale-pink flowered rose is a robust, bushy variety with semi-double flowers that open to reveal gorgeous gold centres. Better still, it has a lovely musk rose fragrance.

H x S: 100cm x 90cm.

'Charles de Mills'

Rosa 'Charles de Mills' is characterised by its delightfully large flowers with a rich plum-purple colouration and strong fragrance. It has an attractive arching growth habit.

H x S: 1.5m x 1.2m.