GINA PARKINSON explains why she is happy to be seduced by roses.

THE new roses I planted earlier this year have begun to flower. I love roses and am already thinking of adding a few more to the garden.

Perhaps the very fragrant climber Madame Alfred Carriere to clothe the north-facing front of the house and Graham Thomas to give a bright patch of long-lasting colour in the back garden.

This latter rose, which was introduced in 1983, has old-fashioned looking double blooms of the most wonderful deep custard yellow that can last from early summer to late autumn.

The four roses we have in our garden at the moment are all pink so Graham Thomas would be a welcome change of direction.

The colour theme wasn't planned and only became apparent when they began to bloom this month.

We already had Octavia Hill and an unnamed variety brought from the garden of my husband's grandmother when she died. We have added Brother Cadfael and Pink Perpetue to the collection.

Brother Cadfael is, like Graham Thomas, an English shrub rose introduced by rose breeder David Austin. It has large double mid-pink flowers with a rich fragrance, especially when the sun has been on them, and grows about 1.5metres tall. The leaves are glossy and dark green, sometimes tinged with purple.

Pink Perpetue is a free-flowering climber with intensely pink flowers that open from perfectly formed buds. It doesn't grow especially tall, around three metres, but a mature specimen will have a good spread making it ideal for covering a wall or fence.

It is a repeat flowerer which produces two or more flushes of flowers in a season and should give as good a show in autumn as it does in summer.

Roses are easy to care for as long as they are planted in a sunny spot and in good soil. They will tolerate a little shade but will not generally thrive in deep shade or in poor or limey soil.

Newly planted specimens will need regular watering during their first summer if the weather is hot and/or dry and, as they are greedy plants, all roses need feeding annually.

The easiest way is to sprinkle rose fertiliser around the base of the plant in early spring then again in June. Or they can be watered with a diluted liquid feed monthly from April to the end of July.

Deadheading will encourage floribunda and hybrid tea roses to produce further flowering shoots. This is done by removing the complete flower truss once the last bloom has faded, to just above a strong growing outward-facing leaf. Once-flowering types and varieties grown for their decorative hips should not be deadheaded.

Updated: 08:47 Saturday, June 19, 2004