“The gifts of nature are worth their weight in Gold”

Rosa Peace or The Peace Rose is out in flower with ten or more buds yet to open. My visitors, yesterday I’m sure, did not understand my excitement at finding the roses about to flower. Rosa Peace has large full blooms, in soft yellow, ivory flushed with crimson pink edging. The foliage is glossy, robust,…

“Yesterday’s rose endures in its name, we hold empty names”.

The names of roses, the history, and the romanticism of the names of roses are aspects, along with playing with colour, that I love about growing roses. Nowhere else could we find so varied a selection of people linked only through a rose name. Indeed, what else would the painter Auguste Renoir have in common…

“Nature does not hurry yet everything is accomplished”

Spring is unfolding at a leisurely pace, and almost all the roses are covered with new glossy foliage that looks healthy and fresh. Because I’m at home in lockdown, I’m more aware of the steady renewal of the new season. Apart from the gorgeous lavender spires everywhere Spring appears slow due to the late cold…

The Name of a Rose

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet. An added bonus of loving roses is learning the history, names and parentage of roses.  Rose names have wonderful stories of  life-long achievements in the dedication to rose breeding and the work done in perfecting new roses and…