It was several years after I first started growing roses that I realised that the little pink-edged circles that occasionally covered my rose blooms were symptoms of a disease called "Grey Mould". Or, more scientifically, "Botrytis cineria". When climatic conditions are cool and wet, chances of seeing this disease manifest itself in the garden increase greatly. At the moment we are having one of the coolest starts to summer in years, and have had very good rainfall.....bingo! One spotty Kew Rambler. There is no sign of it to any great extent in any of the other roses- perhaps a ring here, a pink spot there- but Kew Rambler has been badly effected. It is still lovely, though, and I would rather live with a few spoiled blooms than bring out the big guns of the chemical world.
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