Roses

Rose's are one of my all time favorite plants. They are so beautiful and romantic I think everyone should have one in their garden.
There are many different types ranging from huge rambling climbers to miniature ground covering to the more unusual species types. I must admit I'm a bit particular about the types I like I'm not really a fan of the large flowered Hybrid tea roses. I love the old fashioned scented varieties commonly known as the English rose's or David Austin these have been specially bred to have the old world charm and beauty with modern hardiness, longer flowering and a better degree of disease resistance. They are also (mostly) wonderfully fragrant.

One of my favorites is jubilee celebration



I mean come on just look at that flower.
This one has a delicious scent like strawberries, honey and tea. Yesterday I made some rose petal jam, with petals from this baby and it tastes heavenly.

When I moved in to my cottage I inherited 3 roses in the garden, a unruly white climber that had nothing much to climb up a pink rugosa and a weeping standard. Now I've never really been keen on standard rose's they're a bit old fashioned (not in a cool vintage way) and quite twee, certainly not something I'd of ever thought of buying but I'm so in love with mine


This one's called "Felicite Perpetue" but I affectionately call her flick. I love her little pom pom flowers

I also have a thing for the more unusual rose's like this one and if I had more room I'd love one of these and one of these but unless I do away with the chickens (which will never happen) I'll just have to make do with the 12 I have crammed in the garden.
Here's some more.

This is Rosa glauca,


This is William Lobb


This was supposed to be this obviously its not (bought as a bareroot plant in the winter)but I like it. Although I have a horrible feeling it might be something like a Kiftsgate If it is will just grow and grow. Hmmm maybe I should investigate that one

Thursdays favorite plant

See told you I'd be back


Right this gorgeous chap is Astrantia major also known as masterwort.

This is a real star performer for the herbaceous border. Its flowers last for ages and are really good for cutting. It likes a nice rich moisture retentive soil and performs really well in heavy clay. I have a huge clump in my main border and some at the edge of my wild (messy) pond. Its happy in full sun or a little light shade.
You can often find these growing wild, (I've seen some on the edges of a near by wood) were they have naturalised from nearby gardens. They are really really easy to grow from seed and will happily self seed all over the place.

I love the shape of the flower heads, like little pin cushions with spiky little bracts around the edges. They look beautiful when the sun shines through them and seem to glow when it gets dusk.
There are a few different varieties of varying shades of pink and plumy reds, I have another one called Ruby wedding which is stunning.

I'm going to get round to uploading tons and tons of pictures to flickr soon (I need a rainy day)and will talk some more about my veg patch and post some pics of it (I picked my first pea today.

Enjoy the sunshine

love jess x

A.W.O.L

Sorry I'm being a terrible blogger, my excuse is that I'm in the garden.

I'll leave you a picture of the clematis thats just finished flowering through my bay tree hedge and a promise to catch up soon.

love jess x