Graham Thomas

One of my favourite roses...so soft and beautiful form of flower.

Certainly is a beauty, I love it, this one is a replacement for the one the rabbits ate off, but the old one is beginning to pick up and has leaves so I planted the new one at the side of it.

Gorgeous...

I agree Melchi another of David Austin roses and I have it in the raised border must climb up and see how perfumed it is. Got to get up there and weed so will kill two birds with one stone as they say. lol :O)

It has wonderful petals, doesn´t it.

Is it right that you can't plant roses near to where there are already others, Olive? If so, is there any way of getting round that by enriching the soil?

thank you Katarina yes it is a beautiful rose and it is perfumed, managed to get up onto the raised border and weed and took a good sniff and it is lovely.

Sorry Melchi, not heard that before, but what I do know or have learned off this site is that you should not put roses into the same hole as a diseased rose came from, common sense I suppose, or you would pass on the disease from the first planting. Hope that helps. B :O)

I am very encouraged by that, Olive! It is what my grandmother told me, but I do want to add to my rose collection (such as it is) and because they are dotted around, thought I might have to resort to putting all my new ones in containers. I have no objection to that, but I would like some in the beds as well!

I have some roses in the raised border some climbers in the big middle border (around the edge where the trellis is) and various shrub roses in borders all around the garden they all seem to be ok, I have one new one which is not doing well it is very weak and straggly but think it may be in the wrong place (not enough light) so will move it. It is very close to a climber too so I suppose that is stealing all the nutrients from it. Hope you get some success with your rose planting, I just went for it and hoped I would get it right. Many years ago I tried roses and they were not successful but think I chopped them back too much and ruined them, also the ground was very dry and lacking in moisture where they were planted, think they need quite a lot of water and feeding too. Good luck with them.

ps: Michaella has given me lots of helpful advice over the years on roses so she is worth a pm for help if you get stuck and Karensusan63 will always give advice if she can on them. Bye the way Karensue is my daughter, I suppose I could be just a tad biased. lol. :O)

Thanks! I think you just have to go for it with these things, really.

melchi@as far as i know from other rose breeders and gardeners and my grandmother is that if you plant rose into the same place as there were roses for year, it will suffer. It is because roses deprive the soil from nutrients after years.

I think that is possible, Katarina. If I planted any nearby I should definitely enrich the soil, and I would leave a fair distance. I have no rose beds as such though, so I think I would chance it.

I think you have every right to be biased, Oliveoil, and I don't think you are, actually - Karen's garden is superb. Obviously, like mother, like daughter! (I had realised the relationship) :-)

Ah you spotted us then, different gardening styles though, I love her garden and how it has developed over the last few years. Bonus is we can keep in touch on here as I live in the middle of the British Isles and she lives up North in Scotland where they are challenged with the weather a little more than we are in Lincolnshire. After saying that there are things that Karen manages to grow which I would never be able to keep here in my garden. Think it has something to do with light etc. we are both clay type soils. The last two winters have rather turned things on their heads though as two winters ago we were even colder than Karen was in Scotland. We had -19 degrees one week during a very cold (seriously cold) spell, last winter was not quite as cold but I am hoping this winter will be milder as I lost a lot of plants to the cold which should not have died. I think also after a very dry two summers (water shortages) we think that followed by the very very cold snaps we had did the most damage. We have just been on hosepipe bans from Spring to the start of Summer only just been lifted so you can tell how dry we have been in the east of the country. Now we are all moaning that things are rotting off because of all the rain we have had. Strange weather systems, but everyone is getting strange weather so we just have to live with it all. Give your roses a go and see what develops I hope you are successful there are some beautiful colours and shapes and perfumes so choose carefully try and read into what the sellers are trying NOT to tell you by the speil they give out, if you get what I mean. Some of the rose websites give marks for perfume if you like smelly roses, which I do. Good luck with them all.

Thanks Oliveoil! I am having a bit of a rethink about my borders - slowly, slowly! The ideas creep in and gradually grow. Something to think about instead of counting sheep! We are lucky to have plenty of GCs and nurseries in the area - I love browsing round and planning.

I am afraid we are all having to cope with the weather as best as we can. We have been lucky in this area - we rarely suffer any great extremes here. It's all been a bit discouraging though. My mother is only 2-3 miles inland of us and has had more problems than we have.

I shall have a really good think about which roses I choose, and do a bit of research. The local park is nearby and has a good rose garden with all the roses labelled - I shall start by looking there to see what does well locally.

Have just watched your idol making a dry riverbed in torrential rain. Interesting!

Great idea to look locally, enjoy yourself.

Thank you!