JULY10 WEEK 4

‘Penelope’ is my favourite rose. In fact, during the next weeks we will be taking the maximum number of cuttings from our existing stock. For next year “The Mothers’ Garden” will be laid out, commemorating Louis and my mothers, and there needs to be several ‘Penelope’ roses flanking the central path. But I also decided that this year I would not deadhead her, leaving the heps to mature in order to plant the seed. And what you see here is the seed about to be extracted from the heps. The heps are mature but not old, we have had quite a bit of frost… in theory these seeds should germinate easily. The only other rose near these two in the Cottage Garden at The House that Jack Built, is “Jacques Cartier’’ – and if they’ve chosen to breed, may the result be glorious. If they are self-fertilised: cay sera sera… In due course I will post on the results of this experiment!

 

 

WEEKLY PIC: NOVEMBER WEEK 3

Two days of misty weather, but little rain. Three weeks of trying to catch up with the real world – so my post on my blowsy roses gathers material but also dust. It is time for the weekly pic, so I stick my nose out the front door – literally – at 5.45am to take this shot. It is actually a pretty good subject, not as much of a compromise as it sounds. It shows the good and the bad of my gardening. Let’s start with the bad: too many ‘sticky’ textures, not enough big leaves or sculptural shapes, but it shows much clearer within the frame of a camera than on site; and a tendency to dotty planting rather than dramatic use of a few plants.

 

However it shows some of my favourite plants, and an admirable ‘white garden’ quality, although the Cottage Garden is better described as a garden where white  dominates. In the foreground are the bells on grassy wands of one of my all-time favourite plants: the white Angels’ Rods or Diarama; self-sown white Nicotiana elata abound; in the background Rosa ‘Penelope’, a wonderful repeat-flowering Hybrid Musk that strikes easily from cuttings, and standing out against the dark background, the flowers of Hydrangea serrata are beginning to show colour. One of the stone paths cuts through the composition. The Cottage Garden, small in scale, muddled in execution (by accident rather than design, but appropriate to its name!), is one of my more successful creations.