Have you been thinking that your rose's blooms are especially bountiful and beautiful this year?
You may have thought that your efforts to prune, feed and train your roses were finally having an effect. So it might come as a disappointment to hear that many people have reported a similar state of amazing blooms in their gardens this year.
After hearing rumours that this was the case, we posed the question to our readers, and this was their response.
Are your roses particularly bountiful this year?
On Instagram 79 per cent of respondents thought their blooms looked 'extra amazing' this year, while over on Twitter that figure was a whopping 89 per cent.
While we're willing to admit that at this time of the year, with the sun shining and gardens abundantly colourful, people may have rose-tinted spectacles on (pun intended), it seems like the experts have noticed it's a particularly good year too.
An expert from Peter Beales Roses told us: "All roses this year are looking fantastic! We put the prolific amount and size of rose blooms down to the heat from last year’s summer and then combined with the long, cold winter, followed by a cold, damp spring, has helped them gather strength and power during dormancy."
They went on to encourage continued rose care though, if you want to keep the amazing displays going, saying: "Keeping them looking good is down to good husbandry; continue with plenty of watering and regular liquid feeds."
A senior rose consultant at David Austin Roses told us: "It is likely that many factors have all come together in a perfect storm to encourage the bountiful, fragrant and earlier displays of roses this year."
And they also noted that roses were flowering much earlier this year too. "Traditionally, the David Austin rose gardens would start flowering mid to end of June for the first flush, but we recorded the first flowers towards the end of May," they said.
If you've got an impressive display of roses in your garden this year, share it with us by tagging @gardens_illustrated or using #gardensillustrated.
