In a Vase - Three Graces

Its not that roses have fallen from favour, its just that there were no roses in my new garden.  The rose I missed the most was Grace.....I have won prizes with Grace,  and even picked Grace at Christmas Time.  Of all the roses I grew in my last garden, Grace was consistently my favourite.

I also loved Ghislaine de Feligonde, and Mr S Open Arms...and I had taken a few cuttings of these two, and have one of each well rooted here in the garden now.  Ghislaine de Feligonde is a perfect match in a vase with Grace, and as I write this, I have come up with the perfect spot in the garden to plant Ghislaine which was taken out of its pot and positioned temporarily in the ground last autumn.

I had planned on ordering bare rooted plants and planting them this winter, but when I read Cathy's blog about her new roses arriving from David Austin...I knew what I had to do.  Life is too short now, and I want to get the bed by the Conservatory planted up.  It will be a mixed bed.  The plants were ordered on Monday, and arrived around lunch time Wednesday, and planted in the afternoon...probably less than 48 hours in their box...that's smart logistics for you.

This morning the small damaged side shoots were just picture perfect:  I give you Three Graces...well three stems of Rose Grace.

The rose bushes arrived by courier and here they are ready to be opened.

Cleverly packaged with just some plastic tape, to hold the plant pot steady and upright...

The two rose bushes are having as good start as possible: a large and bountiful hole was dug, with plenty of compost added, well watered, with a sprinkling of David Austin Rose Food, and some fairy dust....then more mulch all around.  

They may be small now, but will have plenty of time to send out good roots and get established well before the winter.  Then next year they will be ready to romp ahead.

A few hours later this morning, the blooms are unfurling...and outside the plants had an additional good shower of rain.

Thank you Mr Austin and thank you Cathy.

In a Vase on Monday - Autumn Tricks

Its two years since Cathy started the In a Vase on Monday group, and since I joined her this year, I have really enjoyed posting, receiving comments, and looking to see what other people have posted.

I've been posting pictures of the flowers from my garden for quite some time now, but if we are speaking strictly of In a Vase on Monday, this is my 21st week....Cathy must have posted over 100!  She is taking stock this week!  I love the clever titles Cathy comes up with, her montages, her props, and of course the material she chooses from the garden.

For my tricks this week...I present you with a vase which looks like it could have been picked in May, but I promise you, I went out this morning, in heavy wind and poor light at 9:30 am to pick these.  The Tiarella Spring Symphony caught my eye whilst I picked a couple of springs of Rosa Open Arms..then a snip here and a snip there, some Astrantia Major Sunningdale variegated, Lysimachia clethroides, and blue Centaurea Major, leaves from a cyclamen and a little posy was constructed from a fairly desolatory looking garden.

However this is a 'celebration' and two years deserves a more fitting arrangement...so up my ladder I went, and picked some of the blooms on the Etoile de Hollande Climbing rose, and just to prove this is not an 'archive' picture, paired it up with some variegated holly.  This rose performs so admirably in this garden...I have even picked blooms for Christmas!  However by Christmas all the red berries on the holy will have been eaten by the birds.

Well done Cathy, how many hits have you had as a result of this Meme, since it started?  Whatever the number, just think of the number of people who have been delighted by it.  Many thanks.

My June Garden

I love roses, and this year have a few more, as a result of planting some bare root bushes from David Austin last November.  I don't feel that they have all done that well, but with the very heavy rain, lack of frosts, and hot weather, I shall forgive them.  A couple have yet to flower, but buds promise some later flowers.  The first flush is well and truly nearly over, helped by the exceedingly heavy rain storms over a couple of days.  Of course we needed the rain but even the carnations had their buds whacked off by heavy raindrops.

This is the first flower from Crown Princess Margareta, it is very similar in colour to the much smaller Ghislaine de Feligonde nearby.

This is Gertrude Jekyll, the scent is heavenly, but the bush is a little small, so I have removed all the flowers, and hope the plant will grow more strongly.  I think I shall move this a little nearer the front of the border .  I envisaged it growing into a shrub/climber, but I wonder whether it is grafted onto different root stocks.  I now know the answer as I broke from writing this to phone up David Austin, and the rootstock is exactly the same.

This is a close up of the climber A Shropshire Lad.  It has made some strong shoots and the flowers are really fine, and were not much spoilt by the rain.

Munstead Wood has the deepest red flowers, and a very good scent.  The bush is clean and very healthy.  Sadly the climber Etoile de Hollande is covered with black spot, and also Grace is looking a little poorly.  I hope a feed and some Epsom Salts will help them continue a little better this season.

Princess Anne with its shinny glossy leaves, but with lots of thorns, is a real show stopper.

I've had Open Arms for a few years now, its towards the end of the garden, and with its single flowers, a favorite for the bees and hover flies.

My clematis Comtesse de Bouchard is in full flower

This morning during a couple of hours weeding I had time to consider some of the changes I want to make to the garden for next year.  I was on my hand and knees on the stones preparing some patches to plant out some new thymes.  We had been to the National Herb Centre on Sunday, and I bought three plants as 'consolation' for not getting some ferns when I ought to have done from Upton House.  The Herb Centre is not far from Upton House, and we had toured the garden which was looking superb, but did not feel like walking back after our picnic to tour the house.  I enjoyed looking around, whilst Mr S looked over the various vintage cars parked up, and then a snooze!  If I enjoy looking around a nursery, I inevitably end up spending some of my pocket money, even though the garden is really overstocked.  I am sure that I am not the only one who plays little games to validate their spending...mine is that each time I pick some flowers for a little posy, or an arrangement or give a bunch of flowers to someone, or give a present of propagated plants, I offset this against my treats of new plants!

I already have a couple of very low growing thymes in the stones, and some others in the borders.  They do well here, and again loved by the bees.

The garden is well sheltered, and as I worked a wonderful smell was wafting around.  I traced it to a small clump of Valerian.  I bought a small pot a couple of years ago from our Kenilworth in Bloom Sale, and the rain seems to have brought it on.  I've read that it is apt to attract cats, can't say that I have seen any, though they would be shooed out of the garden it they did come.  And some say that the scent is not too pleasant, and elsewhere that extracts of the flowers were used as perfume in the sixteenth century.  Isn't scent such a personal thing?

In the more shady area of the garden I have a few ferns coming on: Athyrium Niponicum, which I bought on holiday to Frome

A small fern, the name is lost, which I bought when on holiday in the Lake District.  It has faltered for a couple of years in the ground so I have put in a small pot..

This one just grew in a pot which was planted up with succulents.  It was 'under' a suspended fern which had long hairy roots, name gone, plant gone.  I've separated it out, and planted it in a very characterful pot which Penny brought for me recently.  We could not work out what it was used for, but it had looked as if candles had been burnt in it.

For some reason only the white love in the mist plants  seem to have germinated from last year's seeds, and there were no white flowers last year...often the little pops ups around the garden give me great delight...if they do not. they get pulled out!

David Austin Roses

Last week the Gardening Club had an outing to David Austin Roses.  We were still in the middle of the very wet season thanks to the Jet Stream's position, I had a nasty cold, and home was a big pull...sounds sad, yes it was, but I was really pleased that I went despite all this.  I even forgot my camera.......

We had a wonderful tour and heard all about the development of the wonderful shrub roses by David Austin and his family.  In addition to the roses I particularly liked the sculptures by Mrs Pat Austin, placed around the 'rooms'.  After our cream team, with pretty crockery, I returned to the gardens, then went looking for a little souvenir...

I bought two potted rose trees, and fertiliser and special planting magic granules...all the way back, I was wondering how to get the roses home as I had cycled to the pick up point in Kenilworth.  I had already discussed this with a friend and had as first plan: walking the plants round to her house, for collection later by car.

I had already salvaged the plants from the luggage compartment of the coach, and put them on seats, held tightly with seat belts, and realised that even carrying them 300 metres or so would be awkard.  The second option would be to phone home, with an eta so that the car would be there ready to take the plants home.  However, I still thought of another way, and that is how the rose trees arrived back home, each one in one of my cycle panniers!!!!!  Only possible because I restricted myself to two plants, but I was not thinking of that at the time. 

I bought a lovely small flowered climber: Super Excelsa to go over the arch near the shed..and Constance, I loved  the small round green bud, the long bud, and then the rose.  The colour is a warm and mellow apricot.  To me there is not much scent, but recently I have found the scent of some roses too overpowering some days, so this means than I shall be able to have them in the house even when I am going through my very sensitive days....

I think the plant has recently been re potted, so I have temporarily placed it in the gazebo, and am giving a little water twice a day in this heat. 

My new RHS The Garden Magazine arrived today, and under 'climbers to treasure', Open Arms is mentioned twice.  I agree with the height, growing to just above head height, with nice arching stems, and flowering all season long.  I have bound the stems loosely together about 60cm from the ground and allowed the stems to arch outwards.    I bought this rose about four years ago, and it is doing very well.  The flowers are loved by the bees and insects, and I bought this with Hubby in mind, who much prefers plants which look close to wild species with small blooms.  I don't spray, use the finger method to crush any green fly, and welcome all tits etc who love to look through the rose trees.  Open Arms does get a little black spot here, and when I dead head, I pick off the leaves and that seems to keep the plant healthy.

There is just one more rose tree which I would like to try to cram into the garden and that is the old Mutabilis Rose.  One more reason to visit nurseries!!  Although this is not the best time of the year to plant roses, I am now of the opinion, that you need to see the rose exactly.  A bare root  bought a couple of years ago: Ice Berg is nothing of the sort, and I ought to have known just from the thorns.  In previous gardens, I have always had an Iceberg Rose, and it has been almost thornless.