June is the best time to plant a new rose is mid-winter when the rose is fully dormant.

Roses come bare-rooted, packed in sphagnum moss, or wrapped in plastic.

1.  Unpack and immerse the roots in a bucket of water and begin preparing your planting hole as soon as possible. Roses will live longer and better when carefully planted. Choose a position in full sunshine: the more sunshine, the more flowers.

2. Dig a hole measuring 1m across and 0.5m deep. Do not dig into subsoil. Mix the soil from the hole with homemade compost. Sprinkle in some water crystals.

3. Trim any roots that are diseased and then spread them over the mound of improved soil you’ve made in the base of your hole.

4. If you are planting a standard rose, insert a strong stake into the root system, adjacent to the stem, level with the graft union at top. Tie it to the stem with grafting tape. Backfill with the improved soil. making a rim of soil that serves to drain water into the root system.

5. Slowly water seaweed solution into the root system. Do not use any fertiliser - wait six weeks for the rose to establish, then feed with a pelletised manure (Sudden Impact For Roses is good). Do not over-water your new rose.

6. Mulch around the base of your rose with lucerne hay taking care not to build up mulch against the trunk of the rose.