5 drought-tolerant roses to add to your garden this summer

Pink roses growing behind lavender plants — (Image credit: Getty Images / Svitlana Kolycheva)

Jump to category:

1. Rambling roses
2. Rosa rugosa
3. Ground cover roses
4. Olivia Rose Austin and The Lady Gardener
5. Floribuna roses
Where to buy floribuna roses

Who doesn’t love a rose garden? These beautifully romantic blooms have long been a staple plant in gardens across the UK, but as hotter summers are expected to become more normal, it’s time to be a little more savvy about what we plant. This is why gardening experts have revealed five types of roses that are better suited to warmer climates.

While pro gardeners are opting for drought-tolerant plants and climate-resistant planting schemes, you don’t have to say goodbye to planting roses. If this summer has left your garden looking a bit frazzled, you’d benefit from opting for drought-tolerant options for next year.

Roses are tougher than you think, and these five varieties are what the pros recommend if you’re looking for drought-tolerant options without losing the classic English cottage garden look.

1. Rambling roses

‘Whilst most types of roses like moist, well-draining soil, some types will be more resilient to drought conditions than others and some of the best ones I’ve found for drought tolerance are rambling roses such as the sweetly scented Rosa ‘Gardenia’, the thornless Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ and the glorious Rosa ‘American Pillar’ with its vibrant carmine-pink blooms,’ says Lucie Bradley, gardens and greenhouse expert at Easy Garden Irrigation.

Small yellow rose (Rosa banksiae &lsquo;Lutea&rsquo;) — Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’

Rambling roses share lots of similarities with tough wild roses, which can survive in poor soils. This naturally makes them more drought-tolerant than other varieties.

‘They quickly establish extensive root systems which stretch deep into the ground to allow them to access water which shallow-rooted floribundas would not reach. You will also find that rambling roses tend to bloom only once a year, in June to July, so you don’t have to use lots of energy needed for repeat flowering,’ adds Lucie.

Where to buy rambling roses

2. Rosa rugosa

Not only is rosa rugosa (£19.99, Thompson & Morgan) one of the best plants to attract birds to your garden, but it’s also well-suited to poor conditions.

‘Rosa rugosa is one of the toughest and most resilient roses you can grow. Native to coastal habitats, it’s well adapted to poor or sandy soils, exposed gardens and prolonged dry spells,' says Amber Tunney, Plant Buyer at Cherry Lane Garden Centres.

'Its deep root system allows it to access moisture lower in the soil, while its naturally robust nature makes it highly resistant to many common rose diseases. As a bonus, it produces attractive hips in autumn, providing seasonal interest as well as a valuable food source for birds.'

Where to buy rosa rugosa

3. Ground cover roses

Groundcover roses will suppress weeds and make your garden borders smell fantastic. They’re also a brilliant way to increase the amount of colour in your garden, at every height level.

‘For a ground cover rose which combines minimal care with continuous blooms from June through to October, you need look no further than the resilient ‘Flower Carpet Gold’. When planted in a sunny spot where it will get at least six hours of direct sunlight each day, this vigorous rose will produce its brightest, buttercup-yellow blooms, which appear in dense clusters of 5 to 6 blooms,’ says Lucie.

‘This drought-tolerant rose will continue to bloom repeatedly even when subjected to drought conditions, although in prolonged dry periods it will produce less. It can tolerate drought conditions so well and has a mix of both shallow, surface roots and deep roots once established. Whilst the shallower roots enable it to capture even minimal moisture provided by morning dew, its long roots can tap into the moist.’

Where to buy carpet roses

4. Olivia Rose Austin and The Lady Gardener

Both of these roses are David Austin Roses, and the Olivia Rose Austin is a stunning pink English Shrub Rose that is perfect for achieving a cottage look. The Lady Gardener rose is a beautiful soft peach colour that feels perfect for summer.

‘Both Olivia Rose Austin and The Lady Gardener are excellent choices for gardeners looking for dependable roses that can cope well with drier conditions. They offer excellent disease resistance, tolerate dry weather well once established, and produce continuous flushes of flowers throughout the season. They also naturally shed old foliage, helping to keep plants healthy, and thrive in a sunny position, making them ideal for UK gardens during warmer, drier summers,’ says Amber.

Where to buy Olivia Rose Austin and The Lady Gardener

5. Floribuna roses

Lucie explains that floribuna roses were created by crossing Hybrid Tea roses and Polyanthas, and it is the sturdy, resilient root systems they inherit from Polyanthas that make them better suited to drought conditions.

Lush flowering of a floribunda rose bush (Nina Weibull) in a summer garden, vertically. - stock photo — Nina Weibull rose

‘If you have a fondness for red roses, then ‘Nina Weibull’ makes a great addition to a drought-tolerant garden. It produces masses of velvety, scarlet-red semi-double blooms from early summer through to the first frosts of autumn,’ says Lucie.

‘Being highly tolerant of heat due to both its dense foliage which helps to keep its root zone cooler and the clusters of blooms it produces which help to prevent scorching of individual petals in intense sunlight and combining this with its drought tolerance gained from its thicker leaves that mean it loses less moisture to transpiration and deep, far reaching root system once established makes this tough rose resilient to heatwaves.’

Where to buy floribuna roses

Which rose is your favoruite?

Kezia Reynolds joined the Ideal Home team as News Writer in September 2024. After graduating from City, University of London in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, Kezia kicked off her career spending two years working on women’s weekly magazines. She is always on the lookout for the latest home news, finding you the best deals and trends - so you don’t miss a thing!