Sitting in the garden...

We're starting to get a second flush of roses in our garden. The garden seems to be rushing headlong towards Autumn so it's particularly welcome as a quiet reminder of the warmer days of high summer.

I like wandering in our garden. I try to do it every day, rain or shine, to make sure I am savouring all that it has to offer me. Admittedly, at times, it's nothing more than a quick mooch in the middle of getting the washing in, but my favourite times are when the children are at school and I can sit alone on the garden swing, with only the smallest glimpse of our house, and be still and pray and think and watch. That doesn't sound very still, does it, but it feels still to me, compared with normal daily life!

When I was out yesterday, this beautiful creamy specimen caught my eye. It only gets two flushes a year, rather than flowering continually as I'd really prefer, but they are so sumptuously full and fragrant when they flower that it makes any quiet spells worthwhile.

The colour is perfection. Creamy calico on the fronts of the petals and the warmth of freshly whipped double cream on the backs, which means that, as the petals fold in on themselves towards the centre, the colour reflects and intensifies and becomes almost pale gold. Heavenly.

Everything's rosy...

Back to our garden....

This month, many of our roses are in their first flush.

Roses are one of my absolute favourite flowers.

Lots have been planted by me but many were here when we came so I'm not sure of the names of the ones pictured here. (Suggestions gratefully received!)

Aren't they beautiful?

Perfection.....

Roses: Gertrude Jekyll

Could there be a Modern Country garden without roses? I think not. And, more specifically, without David Austen roses? The epitome of Modern Country gardening! The best of old (fragrance to die for) and the best of new (long flowering times) and all combined with stunning looks.

When I was young, I remember gardeners telling me that you could either have beauty or fragrance in a rose (and, no doubt, women!!). That the fragrance had been bred out in the process of trying to achieve visual perfection. No longer do we have to stand for this travesty! Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you David Austen's Gertrude Jekyll, a Modern Country rose at its best!


Obviously, I can't transmit it's scent to you (though I wish I could) but please believe me when I say it is divine. The kind of smell that makes you want to bury your face in the soft petals and inhale forever. Mmmmm.


This year, my Gertrude Jekyll rose is smothered with flowers. We've had a lot of rain over the past month and they seem not to have spoiled, as some roses do.

My one slight sadness is that their heads do droop somewhat. In fact, the whole plant is a little bit floppy (some might say 'delicate'!) and needs a helping hand supporting. With firm scaffolding in place, though, it is a sight to behold.


Gertrude Jekyll grows to about 6-8ft left unchecked (virtually a mini climber) or can be maintained as a shrub, flowering repeatedly throughout the summer. It has dark green foliage, which is a sumptuous bronzed red when young. The buds are beautiful and the open rosettes ( a medium pink) exquisite.


Don't you agree (how can you say no?!) that David Austen's Gertrude Jekyll rose definitely deserves its place in any Modern Country garden?