Category: Rose garden

Here are all the posts related to my own rose garden, through the seasons. You can find my favourite planting combinations with roses, including hardy geraniums, salvia, lupins, hemerocallis and penstemons.

If I could only grow one rose…

You get beautiful blooms, from bud to maturity. You get scent. You get stunning foliage. You get a full, rounded growth habit. You get a rose which is easy to partner with other plants. You get health. You get joy, over and over and over again.

The best roses for foliage

The poppies and peonies will be here soon. For now, I will sit here drinking my coffee, appreciating the twinkling from the rose foliage.

Tuscany Superb: The Most Romantic Rose of All

It is one of my favourite sensory pleasures to hold the impossibly soft and tender rose in one hand and snip its bristly stem with the other. The petals are softer than anything I know: peach fuzz, babies’ bottoms, duck down: they are nothing to this rose. The spent flower fits perfectly into my hand. Its petals may suddenly let out a silent ‘oh!‘, let go of their calyx all at once. They drop into my waiting bucket, with a flurry of petal confetti. and glorious rose perfume.

Tickled Pink

I don’t think of myself as a particularly girly girl, and throughout my life I have almost avoided pink. Yet when I look around my rose garden, I see pink everywhere. And yes, I am tickled pink.

Layers of Loveliness

I generally plant roses and herbaceous perennials in groups of three. This gives each variety a presence in the border: their flowers are in sufficient number to make an impact. I like the way they form clear hummocks, like hills, through the border. Their outlines remind me of a child’s drawing of overlapping hills.

Mouth-watering

This peony is mouth-watering. There is a lightness to intersectional peonies. Where herbaceous peonies are taffeta and tulle, intersectional peonies are a swishy silk skirt on bare legs.

Fit to Burst

The best buds of all are the oriental poppies. They wear thick woollen tights, but silk knickers beneath. This one is about to burst its breeches.

Change

Like with life, the garden is always in a state of flux. Nothing stays the same for long. There is always something new, always change.

Comfy Pants

My favourite winter job in the garden is MULCHING. Just the word is delightful. Like squelching, but warmer and snugglier.

Pops and Neutrals

I am a ‘colour pop’ kind of a girl. But occasionally, with a light frost, I am forced to focus on the neutrals. With the aid of my new book all about colour, I can now distinguish my buff from my fawn!

Pink Pops

Let’s celebrate those who dare to be different. Who let their madness shine through. Who receive a frosty reception but do it anyway.