Winter Roses

I thought winter had arrived the other morning as I needed to wear gloves on my cycle to work for the first time in months but, I couldn’t help noticing when I was shutting the back gate on my way out, that there were still over 2 dozen roses in bloom.  I thought  I’d picked the last of them 3 weeks ago before we went away to Wales but there were rather more buds hidden under the leaves  than I had realised.  It lifted my spirits to see them, reminding me that beauty can often be found in unlikely situations

Roses

Despite the wet spring we’ve had, the roses in the garden are absolutely glorious at the moment.  They’re my favourite flowers, especially the old fashioned, scented climbers and I particularly like them growing against a wall.  My mum loved roses too; perhaps because she was born in June, but whatever the reason, she passed that love onto me. I adore them so much that along with daisies, I carried white roses in my wedding bouquet.  Most of our garden roses are from David Austin and have lived upto all expectations; hardy, disease resistant, abundant, heavily fragranced and quite simply, glorious. 

Green Fly

Crown Princess Margareta

 We found two green fly on our old English scented climbing roses at the weekend and it's still only March. Last year despite our good intentions to use nothing but soapy water as a deterrent to them, the evil beasties proved to be so resistant to any form of control we'd to resort eventually to commercial pesticides.  On rummaging in the shed, we found an old spray container with a drop of mixture in the bottom so Andy duly applied it as far as it would go.  Sadly it seems that the toxic battle needs to commence early this year.

Gertrude Jekyll