I decided that I needed even more roses in my garden. I have several spaces still up for grabs and I started with a border which currently contains seven Braithwaites planted in a V shape. in the middle of the V there is a Greecian statue of a almost nude woman holding an urn... we inherited this lady when we bought the house and have named her Ariagne. Well my mother and daughter did! Behind Ariagne there is a space which would fit 3 roses. The important question was WHICH roses. The Braithewaites are a blood red and there is already a patch of apricot Lady Emma Hamilton's in the neighbouring border.
In the end I decided to go for a Blue/Purple/Lilac rose as I thought that this would be the best contrast. I looked at several varieties which included the Cardinal de Richelieu, Indigo, Twice in a Blue Moon and Rhapsody in a Blue. I finally decided on Rhapsody in a Blue as they are long flowering, it grows into a tall bush with lots of fresh green foliage which is highly disease resistant. According to David Austin it will grow as tall as 4ft5 and this will be perfect for the back of the border. It will be mixed in with white Campanula's, Catmint, Orange Monbretia and Forget-Me-Nots. There is also a few Foxgloves dotted around but not as many appear to have come up this year so I may have to invest in some plugs which will flower this summer. The bare roots arrived in March and I planted them immediately. Unfortunately the weather has been horrific and it snowed within 48hrs of them being planted. Some of the new buds have been damaged and now that the leaves are started to open they all appear to have burnt edges too. Fortunately though they are still protruding buds which as developing. I have added some Top Roses and I am keeping my fingers crossed.
The other roses that I have invested in are 8 Peace roses. Three for a new border that I have dug and 5 for the front garden. My front garden currently contains a few Gertrude Jekyll's so a few Peace would compliment the soft colours in the front garden nicely.
I also chose Peace because I have decided to venture away from my comfort zone of growing on Old English roses and try Hybrid Teas for a change. unfortunately it has only a light fragrance but the impact of it beautiful colouring will let it off this point for me. Its hardy and incredibly disease resistant. It should grow to approximately 4ft with fairly dark foliage. I still need to decide which perennial I will plant to accompany it but a white and a lavender sound like the colours to go for.
Like the Rhapsody's the bare roots also got damaged so again fingers crossed for this summer!
