Notes From a Small Garden I can hardly bear to say goodbye to June. Although the beginning was cold, it gave the roses a rest so that they didn’t all go over in two weeks and as I’m writing this, they are all looking magnificent. When we started to make this garden, old fashioned French roses were all the rage and I read Graham Stuart’s three books avidly. I dearly loved the roses we planted, but they had a number of disadvantages, not least that they were all three-week wonders. They often weren’t very robust and prone to green fly and black spot. Now as I go round the garden, it’s interesting to note which roses have survived 40 years. The first is the apothecary’s rose, Rosa gallica v officianalis, the Red Lancastrian rose, a very strong magenta semidouble rose. It spreads underground which is fine for where I planted it, as it tolerates shade. It responds well to quite hard pruning in the early spring. To my joy this year, the white rose of York (Rosa alba L.) emerged from the undergrowth in the big mixed bed; I thought we had lost it. It was used by herbalists in the sixteenth century and usually appeared as the first among all the roses in their herbals; “… most ancient knowne rose … king of all others”. The old moss rose Chapeau de Napoléon, so called because the calyx and the bud resemble Napoleon’s hat, is doing well. This semiclimbing pink rose came from a cutting off one at Shepreth church! Other favourites still surviving well include the Scots roses, white and pink, (Rosa spinosissima), which also spread below ground and are easy to dig up to give a piece away. Alas, I have lost all the Bourbon roses; Madame Pierre Oger, La Reine Victoria and Louise Odier. They all have exquisite flowers, with incurved petals. I miss them greatly, but if I want to see them again, nowhere is better than Lucy Boston’s house at Hemingford Grey, where there is a wonderful collection of old roses. The garden (but not the house) is now open again to visitors from 10.00am-6.00pm daily. See https://www.greenknowe.co.uk for further details and admission prices.
I don’t know when I first came across David Austin’s roses. They have the advantage of being repeat flowering, have beautiful shapes and 42
