Monthly Archives: June 2009

It does seem to be a spectacular year for roses and – from the rampant to the refined – they have never looked better in our garden. At the rampant end, the Cooper’s Burmese rose has defied its tender reputation despite the cold winter and has now entirely clothed our rather ugly garage.

Mind you, the first time I saw it was in Italy, where it was up to the roof of an old monastery, so I can’t say I wasn’t warned. Although it only flowers once, its pure-white single flowers have a simple beauty and are followed by great clusters of orangey-red hips in the autumn. The other charming thug is Treasure Trove which grows 30 feet in either direction along a fence, has colonised an adjoining hedge and clambered up a large bay tree.

Although it does look spectacular at the moment I’m not sure I would recommend it – it is just too vigorous and the flowers don’t die very attractively. Moving on to the more refined contenders, climber Buff Beautyhas finally asserted itself among its companions on the garden wall where its soft apricot flowers peer out from the vine’s foliage.

The extraordinary Giant Fennel planted in the border in front of it has now reached 12ft! Of all the roses in my garden, the one that has most significance is one that I bought many, many years ago. It spent most of its life in a pot and it was only once I moved here that I finally felt it had found its home. I always thought it was Omar Khyam, which was reputed to have been propagated from the grave of the poet, but it is too deep a pink. Nevertheless it is utterly gorgeous and intensely fragrant and I am now trying to get it identified – for the moment it is my ‘Mystery Rose’.

In the greenhouse: all the windows and doors are wide open all the time to keep the air circulating and the blinds are pulled down on sunny days to stop scorching. I also follow the old tradition of watering the path on hot days to keep the humidity high and cool the air.

In the coldframe: my experiment with sowing carrots in rootrainers to get better and quicker germination seems to be paying off. They are growing like grass at the moment. Of course it could all go horribly wrong – I still haven’t worked out how, or when, I am going to transplant them.

In the garden: After rain, dig up self-sown seedlings that might be useful elsewhere or make nice presents. Euphorbia mellifera and Euphorbia stygiana self sow enthusiastically and I’ve collected up dozens of young hellebore plants that germinated last year. I’m rather excited about a seedling rose that is poking through the fence of the vegetable garden – I think Cooper’s Burmese has had a pink semi-double baby!

In the greenhouse: all the windows and doors are wide open all the time to keep the air circulating and the blinds are pulled down on sunny days to stop scorching. I also follow the old tradition of watering the path on hot days to keep the humidity high and cool the air.

In the coldframe: my experiment with sowing carrots in rootrainers to get better and quicker germination seems to be paying off. They are growing like grass at the moment. Of course it could all go horribly wrong – I still haven’t worked out how, or when, I am going to transplant them.

In the garden: After rain, dig up self-sown seedlings that might be useful elsewhere or make nice presents. Euphorbia mellifera and Euphorbia stygiana self sow enthusiastically and I’ve collected up dozens of young hellebore plants that germinated last year. I’m rather excited about a seedling rose* that is poking through the fence of the vegetable garden – I think Cooper’s Burmese has had a pink semi-double baby!