January in the Garden

Above: Crepuscule, midway along the path leading from our front gate.

Above: Lavernius the Maremma. Either side of him are the hybrid musks Francesca. Halfway down on both sides is a single plant of Crepuscule, then a mix of Sally Holmes and Isabella Sprunt.

Above: One of my favourite yellow Austins, The Pilgrim. This rose is growing in quite a shady position, and has reached a height of eight feet. It could easily be used as a small climber as well as a large shrub, and is very free-flowering. The strongly-scented blooms are lovely, and usually a little more yellowish than depicted in this photo.

Above: The hybrid musk rose Francesca has been sensational this year, producing flush after flush.

Above: The sensational shrub rose Sally Holmes. I love the combination of her apricot scrolled buds with the light-cream, almost white, display of her fully-opened blooms.

I have not visited this blog for several weeks now...not because of disinterest or slackness, I assure you, but because I fell head first into a rose bed, and in putting out my arms in front of me to break my fall, managed to smash the lens of the camera that I was holding in my palm at the time. Our garden is full of holes and depressions, and falling into or over them is quite a common occurrence for me. This is the first time that I have pitched head-first into an actual bed of roses, however...I was inches away from a face-plant into a big specimen of Isabella Sprunt!

I am now relying on a second camera until I replace the one I broke, and I'm afraid that the photos are not nearly as satisfactory. I'm sure that it is not the fault of the camera as much as my inability to use it properly, but the season is getting away from me so I will have to make do with what I have and start recording the roses again.

It has been a wonderful Summer so far...mild temperatures, no sweltering humid days or hot winds, and lots of rain from Summer storms keeping everything healthy and lush. The roses have been brilliant, with even once-flowerers like Fruhlingsduift and Gigantea providing a big second Summer flush. There has been very little blackspot or aphids..I have a small row of four Bloomfield Daintys which have been uncharacteristically blackspotty, but these bushes have also displayed a decline in vigour and quite a bit of dieback since Winter. I have cut them back and fertilized them, so hopefully an improvement in general health will be the result, and I won't have to remove them.