Bit of a pilgrimage !

The last day of June was a gift. A blue-skyed, hot- sunned gift. I would think most people relaxed in their gardens, saw friends, barbecued, drank chilled white white ... We, on the other hand, spent about five hours in an airless car, driving down to the 'David Austin Plant Centre', near Wolverhampton. And I don't regret one single mile of it.

My passion for the last few years has been the 'English Roses', bred by David Austin since the 1970's. They are a heady mix of romance and ripe beauty, somehow managing to capture the essence of the English country garden at its height, in midsummer. The names, alone, are so evocative, names like 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles', 'Brother Cadfael', 'The Generous Gardener', 'This Sceptred Isle' just make you want to find a place for them in your own garden.

My local nurseries have a reasonable selection of 'English roses', and, in their favour, they are only just down the road, but once I started looking through the David Austin catalogue, I realised that the choice there was immense, as they hold the National Collection. So,  there was only one place to head to ... the centre of the universe !

Maybe I should get out more, but I have rarely had more excitement from what was essentially a retail experience ! There are two acres of the most heavenly gardens, housing hundreds of English roses, in huge pots, mixed borders, formal gardens specimens and climbers. I learned such a lot from just looking. I had selected roses from the catalogue before we set off, and thought I knew exactly which ones I would buy, but when I saw them in a garden context, grown to full maturity, I had to rethink some of my choices. It is such a personal thing, and whilst they are ALL beautiful, the habits of some appeal more than others. For example, I fell in love with 'Queen of Sweden from a photo of the flower in the catalogue, and  thought she was definitely coming home with me, but when I saw her stiff, upright habit, I discounted her immediately. The habits were very different in different plants, some had graceful, arching habits, some were too lax, others too vigorous, others too small. Like Goldilocks, I had to find the ones which were 'just right'! The more I walked and looked, the more I learned and understood.

The gardens were absolutely fantastic, and most of the roses were in their first flush of flowers, so the scents and colours were intense. The mixed planting gave some interesting, thoughtful combinations too, such as pink roses against the purple leaves of a Sedum.

 Just before closing time I had managed to narrow my choices down to four English roses of complementary colours, with similar expected dimensions at maturity. The plan is to put them all into  a Box parterre which is just beginning to fill out and mature. It was planted about 2 years ago, and, after a slow start, the plants are growing now. The area inside the box hedging has been filled with Cosmos, grown from seed, and annual poppies every summer, but the roses will replace this labour intensive planting, to a large extent.

So, what was the final, difficult selection, with an overwhelming choice of gorgeous alternatives ?

My first choice was 'Wollerton Old Hall' a lovely creamy, apricot rose with a fantastic scent. It is one of the most highly scented of the English roses.

Next into the trolley was ' Gentle Hermione' with its soft pink, full petalled flowers, as every example in the gardens just looked stunning.

An old favourite next, the soft yellow 'Jude the Obscure',which I have somehow managed to kill off in the garden . It has large flowers, and like 'Wollerton Hall', has a strong scent.

Finally, 'William and Catherine', a lovely rose with perfect flowers fading from apricot to white over dark, glossy green foliage.

All healthy, well grown plants, bursting with buds. I can't wait to get them into the garden and see them flowering.

Here are some of the other lovely roses in the gardens :

 The Alnwick Rose

'Chianti'

'Jayne Austin'

'The Lion Garden'

Equally as lovely to look at as the roses !

'Queen of Sweden'

Mixed planting, including Foxgloves

More mixed planting, including catmint and Penstemon

More formal planting , using Box and roses

End of the month view -( a bit late) ...

Not entirely on time with this post and in fact a day late, but the spirit of the thing remains the same ! You will find similar posts  on several other blogs (including 'The Patient Gardener') as it can be interesting to see a snapshot of different gardens with different plants in flower, micro climates, styles of planting etc.

I started at the bottom of the garden and walked up, taking photos as I went, of anything which I thought may be vaguely interesting. Please note artfully arranged hosepipe, watering can and wheelbarrow !

This is the wildlife pond, now fizzing with tadpoles and newts ! Marsh Marigold is out, as are primroses and Cowslips. You can see the house in the distance (the garden is long and thin!).

There is something very satisfying about newly planted spuds - until the weeds begin to grow again ! We are just growing 'Maris Bard' this year, so here's hoping the blight stays away this year.

Soft fruit - black currants and red currants, with the beech hedge in the background, still clothed with last year's leaves.

This is part of the sub-tropical garden, which is just beginning to wake up. The more tender members of this garden are still snuggly warm in the greenhouse for a little while yet.

This is the 'Bus Shelter Garden' (come on, you can see why ...) and I lovingly grew 400 grasses from seed 2 years ago, tore out all the planting and planted it up completely with grasses. It lasted a season before I tore about 350 of them out and restored my mixed planting! The grasses looked absolutely fantastic for about a month, and a bit rubbish for the remaining eleven. The Festuca edging to the island bed did get a reprieve, as it stays looking good for much longer !

The ornamental pond, with emerging ferns and Marsh Marigold in flower.

Island bed containing all sorts ! You can see an Angelica growing in front of your very eyes, next to a newly re-planted Eucalyptus Gunii. In the foreground is Viburnum Davidii, with an unclothed Buddleia directly behind it. It also containg English roses, delphiniums, lupins, ferns and hostas ... and possibly lots more which are yet to surprise me when they pop up !

This was taken in 'Helen's Garden', a new garden which is semi- formed.  We still have lots to do with both hard landscaping and planting. It is in memory of a very dear friend. It is one of this season's projects. Prominent plants are the red primrose and the young tree Magnolia Stellata, which is at its peak.

This is one of the mixed planting beds, which are heavy on the cottage garden perennials and roses. Aconitum, one of my favourite plants, is pushing through strongly to the left of the photo, and there are Lychnis, Lupins, Delphiniums, English roses and Euphorbia in there somewhere. The bright yellow shrub is Euonymus. Daffodila and Hellebores are fading, whilst the Pulmonaria still burns bright.

The pots of pansies provide a splash of rich colour and I wish I could say I grew them ! I did grow some, but my doves got peckish and demolished them about a month ago, so these are replacements bought from a local nursery.

Same excuse for these I'm afraid - 'the doves ate my pansies" sounds nearly as implausible as "the dog ate my homework"!

So that is a brief over view of how the garden looks at the moment. I took loads of photos and tried to be selective, so there are still lots left in the 'album' ! Funnily enough, they are the ones which happen to feature a large dandelion, or some naughty nettles !

You don't need to be a grafter ...

You really don't need to be a grafter! Honestly!  For years and years I thought you did. I thought that all roses had to be grafted on to a root stock before they could be propagated. Untrue ! Turns out that the graft is for the convenience of the rose grower rather than the rose, and that, in many cases the rose is healthier and more long-lived when grown on its very own roots.

For those who are looking puzzled, grafting is a way of propagating roses in which one plant is fused together with another. One rose is usually selected for its hardy, healthy roots, whilst the other (the 'Scion') is selected for its blooms, fragrance, flower type etc. 

Most roses are grown commercially in this way. The point where the two roses join is called the graft union and it is the knobbly bit at the bottom of the stem. It causes endless debate when it comes to planting - whether it should be planted above or below the soil level (but that is a whole other story).

Last seasons babies

As soon as I realised that I could just take straightforward cuttings I was out with the secateurs pretty damn fast. I love roses, especially the English roses, and although they are worth every penny, they are expensive plants to buy. I took the cuttings with scant regards to the books, starting from June and stopping about October, when the opportunity presented itself, so they included semi-ripe to hardwood cuttings. I have had a really high rate of success, probably about 80%. I took them as you would take most other  cuttings, cutting below a bud and using hormone rooting powder. They survived even when I couldn't resist having a look at them, to check if they had rooted! (Why do I do that ? can't resist).

This is a climber ! White Cloud, New Dawn, Cinderella ? Who knows ?

They stayed outside until it got a bit nippy and then I moved them into the greenhouse, which I don't suppose they needed, but maybe they appreciated. They are now growing away very strongly and I have even planted my first baby outside in the big wide world.

Now, here's the rub ... although I used a permanent marker to write the labels, it didn't live up to its name ! When I checked the labels, most are just a blue blur ! So I have little idea, at this stage, whether they are climbers, English roses or anything else. I suppose time will tell.

I can't wait for them to start blooming, so that I can identify them. The only ones which I can still read are 'Graham Thomas' and 'Cinderella', which are two of my favourites, so at least I know I have rooted those successfully.

I have also invested in a top of the range, truly waterproof pen so that my labels will still be readable after a few months outside !