Old fashioned Flower of the Season - Summer 2010

" I once heard that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I was never able to believe it. A rose just couldnt smell as sweet if it were a thistle or a skunk cabbage!"

Anne of Green Gables

What more can I say - there is no more favourite 'old fashioned' flower in all the world than the rose. Beautiful colours, adaptable to so many environments, intoxicating fragrances, glorious in a garden, mass planted or as a cut flower. Its beauty has graced so many poems, so many stories of old, and inspired many of the great minds of history (see this month's quote of the month). It is my favourite flower - I must always have a rose growing in my garden, and I delight in giving great bunches of them to those I love !

Growing roses is so easy too. Best planted in winter during bare rooted season, they bennifit from a little fertiliser, and regular water, although they are so very hardy, they will withstand periods of drought and almost any soil bar pure sand (!) and still turn on an impressive show. Prune every winter (June is best in most parts of Australia, although you can get away with waiting till mid August if need be !), and nip away dead flowers from the first flush in spring to encourage further flowering. This is always so enjoyable when done on balmy evenings with a glass of Moscato in one hand and secateurs in the other !!


There are numerous varieties of rose available on the market - shrub, floribunda, minitures, climbers, standards, burbons, Austins, hybrid tea - all of which have quite differing flowering habits, so my main reccomendation when purchasing a rose would be find out what it is you are wanting from your rose and purchase accordingly. Do you want lots of flowers? Floribunda would be your pick. Would you like strong fragrence? Burbons and Austins are a good choice. Do you want the look of a post war garden? Choose hybrid tea's - the frilly Austins and Burbons and other old fashioned roses have only made a come back in more recent times. A true mid 21st Century garden will use only hybrid teas - 'Oaklahoma', 'Ena Harkness' and 'Peace' are some good choices for this purpose. Feel free to email me if you want some help !

I do hope you delight in these photographs from my own garden as much as I have delighted in taking them - I have recently purchased a lovely new digital camera and have had a wow of a time photographing my pretty little garden gems. Summer in the garden is never dreary when there is a rose to enjoy !