Royal Jubilee – The Mindful Gardener

Comparing the growth habit of different roses

A reader asked if I could show photos of the growth habit of the David Austin English roses ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’ and ‘Roald Dahl’. I thought I would go the whole hog and write a post about the growth habit of all my roses. I do favour David Austin English roses because: they have the…

Raindrops

On Friday we had some rain! It was a steady drip for a couple of hours during the day, and then a bit more as I was going to bed. It was badly needed: it felt like a rescue breath for the hedges and fruit trees. I have accidentally caught a couple of lovely water…

Getting to know you…

A rose is a long-term investment. There is a substantial layout initially. A good hole should be dug (I love digging holes), and timed so that they are just ready for your bare-root rose to arrive in November. When you see that magical brown-paper bag waiting by the door when you get home from work,…

Floriferous

If there is one rose in my garden that out-flowers them all, it is ‘Royal Jubilee’. Do you like its perfect globes of flowers? Are you tempted to stick your finger or nose into that hole? Do you like the scalloped petals that fold over so protectively? It can look up, but it likes to…

Macro

I indulged myself. I bought a macro lens. I’m not one to read instructions, and that’s good, because this camera came with NO instructions. Well, very basic instructions. So it is going to take a lot of button-pressing and dial-twiddling before I work out what I can do. This is what I did after work…