Visitors to the Gardens can explore an extensive range of rose varieties, including Old Roses, Floribunda, English Roses, Polyantha, Climbing Roses, Gallica, Rugosa, Alba and Tea Roses.

The Rose Garden, which was originally built in the 1990s, has been carefully curated to combine traditional beauty with resilient, extreme climate-tolerant planting. 

Lewis Belcher, senior herbaceous and hardy horticulturist at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, said: “There’s plenty to see this month as the Rose Garden bursts into an abundance of colour and fragrance.

“As it approaches its third decade, it has undergone a subtle but effective style change moving away from a more traditional layout with box hedge edging and symmetrical planting of English roses towards a softer, more natural composition inspired by cottage and Mediterranean style planting. 

“Box hedges have been replaced with Santolina chamaecyparissus clipped into mounds, while Salvias in pastel shades bring colour in-between flushes of rose flowers.

“We’ve also introduced old and wild species of rose that are better at resisting disease and coping with extremes in weather, helping to ensure the collection remains both resilient and visually beautiful throughout the seasons.” 

To celebrate National Rose Month, Lewis offers his top five tips and tricks for expert rose care:

1. Remove as many fallen leaves as possible and dispose of them, don’t compost as this slows the spread of fungal diseases, such as rose black spot. 
2. Mulch after winter pruning (usually in February) and be generous with it, using homemade garden compost if possible. If you use rotted manure, don't apply it every season as eventually it can lead to lots of foliage at the expense of flowers. Instead, apply rotted manure every second or third season. 
3. Deadhead spent flowers by using snips, secateurs or scissors, before they produce seed to encourage new blooms. Follow the stem down and cut just above a leaf that has five leaflets. 
4. Give roses a feed after deadheading using a high potassium fertiliser to encourage strong new blooms. 
5. Choose appropriate companion plants such as Salvia microphylla and Allium varieties. They provide colour, attract pollinators, repel unsightly aphids and the salvias even release a natural fungicide into the soil. 

Rose lovers can view the Rose Garden at its seasonal best this June at Birmingham Botanical Gardens.