A Garden of Roses
One thing I love is the intoxicating scent of a garden rose - especially an English rose.
Last year, I planted a new rose garden behind my main greenhouse not far from my flower cutting garden and raspberry bushes. The space is in full sun, so I knew it would be an excellent area for planting a variety of David Austin roses. Every gardener and rose expert is familiar with the rose hybridizer, David Austin, who started as a hobby breeder when he was a teen and went on to breed a collection of roses renowned around the world. His specimens have exquisite blooms and the most alluring fragrances. The plants in this garden are still small, but every one of them has bloomed and the flowers are breathtaking.
Enjoy these photos.
-
- I have lots and lots of roses at the farm. Many are planted inside my perennial flower cutting garden and down behind my chicken coops along with my allée of lilacs. I also have some climbers growing around my vegetable garden. This ‘Vanessa Bell’ variety, with medium-sized flower cups held in large clusters of pale yellow to white is in the newest garden designated for roses – in an open area where I previously planted dahlias.
-
- These David Austin roses are young and small, but every one of them is developing so nicely.
-
- When selecting a location, plant roses in a sunny spot with good drainage. Fertilize them regularly and water them evenly to keep the soil moist.
-
- This is ‘Carding Mill.’ The full blooms are a blend of pink, apricot, and yellow, giving the overall impression of orange. They also have a wonderful fragrance close to myrrh.
-
- This rose is called ‘Tottering-By-Gently.’ This variety has simple single flowers in soft yellow with golden stamens. Paling prettily over time, they have a light musky scent, with notes of orange peel. ‘Tottering-By-Gently’ flowers freely, repeating regularly throughout the summer.
-
- Some rose blooms are very full with many petals in at least three or more rows.
-
- ‘Lady of Shalott’ shows chalice-shaped blooms with loosely arranged, orange petals. The surrounding outer petals are salmon-pink with beautifully contrasting golden-yellow undersides. It gives off a pleasant, warm tea fragrance, with hints of spiced apple and cloves.
-
- Rose leaves are borne alternately on the stem. In most species, they are about two to five inches long, pinnate, with at least three leaflets and basal stipules. The leaflets also usually have a serrated margin.
-
- Rose stems are often armed with sharp prickles – they aren’t thorns at all. Unlike a thorn, a prickle can be easily broken off the plant because it is really a feature of the outer layers rather than part of the wood, like a thorn.
-
- ‘Eglantyne’ is a David Austin favorite. It has perfectly formed, soft pink blooms with a charming, sweet Old Rose fragrance.
-
- The flowers of most rose species have at least five petals. Each petal is divided into two distinct lobes.
-
- Other roses have multiple tight petals such as this one. Rose plants range in size from compact, miniature roses, to climbers that can reach several feet in height.
-
- Another beautiful David Austin rose is ‘The Poet’s Wife,’ which bears rich yellow flowers that pale over time. The form has an outer ring of petals enclosing more petals. There is a strong, wonderfully rich fragrance with a hint of lemon, which becomes sweeter and stronger with age.
-
- Around the entire perimeter of this garden, we planted foxglove. Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, thrives in full sun to partial shade to full shade, depending on the summer heat. Each plant usually has a one-sided raceme with 20 to 80 flowers.
-
- The downward-facing blooms are tapered and tubular with four lobes.
-
- Each 1½ to 2½ inch long pink, purple, or white corolla has long hairs inside and is heavily spotted with dark purple edged in white on the lower lip, which serves as a landing platform for pollinators. The flowers are visited by bees – primarily bumblebees – which climb deep into the flower tube to get the nectar inside.
-
- At the front of this garden, I decided to plant two large boxwood shrubs gifted to me by my friend, George Bridge, who first introduced me to boxwood more than 15 years ago. These boxwood look so handsome “guarding” this bed.
-
- This rose variety has full-petalled, rosette-shaped flowers with a button eye and a strong fragrance.
-
- This is a perfect white rose named ‘Tranquillity.’ This one has beautifully rounded flowers, with neatly placed petals making up the rosettes.
-
- This is ‘Princess Alexandra of Kent’ with its unusually large, bright pink flowers that are full-petalled and deeply cupped. It features a strong fresh tea fragrance, which changes to lemon, eventually taking on hints of blackcurrants.
-
- Here is ‘The Alnwick Rose’ – with broad, full-petalled shallow cups of soft to rich pink. In an upcoming blog, I’ll also share photos of the roses in my flower garden and down in the lilac allée – they’re all so beautiful this time of year.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
