Roses, roses, roses

"Love thou the rose, yet leave it on its stem". from 'The Wanderer' by Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, Earl of Lytton.

I do so agree with that comment. There is nothing to my mind so lovely as a rose bathed with the morning dew and flushed with first sunli

ght. Most of my roses are heritage or David Austin roses and they just hate being inside in a vase. They sulk, wilt and drop their petals, which suits me fine as I love seeing them in the garden.

Heritage by David Austin

True they often don't have the vigor of the modern rose and mine in particular don't as they have to cope with a lot of shade from the surrounding trees, but they reward me with their subtle colours and sweet perfume. I love walking through the garden, savouring the scent of the lime and lemon blossoms mingling with the rose perfume. 

Golden Wedding                                                         

Fruhlingsmorgen

Please don't ask me to name them all. Somewhere I do have a map I made of the garden some years ago, but I can't find it and I have a terrible memory for plant names.My daughter Jo is brilliant at it, but I am not. If I thought about it for long enough they might come back to me, but don't hold your breath.

This variegated one is a new variety that took my eye. I used to have a number of old variegated varieties, but most of them were not very hardy and did not survive the neglect.

I find roses are usually hardy and very forgiving of poor treatment, but we lost a lot of them when the council decided to spray the road verge on a windy day!!!

Prospero (I think)

Close up of Fritz Nobis                                   

                                                                                 

 

My lovely old 'Fritz Nobis' (below) nearly died from the  spray ovedose, but we nursed it back to health and this year - 3 years later - is beginning to look good again

Liz Needle