And they're off!

As per usual my Gertrude Jekylls are the first over the starting line and I am, as I am every year, blown away by how stunning they are. The gorgeous big, fat rosette shape blooms which burst out of an impossibly small bud. So many petals cannot surely fit inside something so small? The smell is just amazing. A mixture of Melon and Honey. I have only three in a 3 metre long border so the impact could be better. I am thinking of adding two Charlotte rose bushes or possibly a pair of white Claire Austin roses. In the rest of the garden everything is coming on nicely. The Icebergs look healthy after last years bout of white mold which is a relief. I planted a Climbing Madame Caroline Testout in a huge container on the north corner of my house last summer. I had the hope that it would grow up and across my window seat/bay window and across the back of the house. Its done much better than expected and it has grown 3 metres since last summer which is amazing. There are about 50 or 60 buds which are ready to pop so hopefully in a few weeks time i will have enough information to write up about it and publish a few pictures.
My miniature roses are in full bloom now and they look great at the front of the border. I am surprised that they have survived as my son has adopted their spot as his favourite digging spot. So even though half their roots are visible they seem happy enough. Miniatures definitely live up to their reputation of being extremely hardy! In the next few days I will post about the variety of diseases that we can expect to see over the next three months and how best to tackle them. I have had to deal with only Blackspot, Mildew and Greenfly so far so its good to do some research.

Over the last few weeks I have been doing a fair bit of rose maintenance. After trimming off any weaker side shoots from the bottom and doing a huge amount of weeding and mulching, I have given each rose a generous scattering of TopRose and been round with the Rose Clear twice already. I don't know about you but I have not seen a single ladybird yet so the greenfly are out and doing loads of damage. I wonder whether it had something to do with all the late snow that we had in March in the UK. I think I have got through about four litres of Rose Clear already. It does an excellent job and it is chemical free which is a bonus. The next thin on my list is to go out and start securing the stems. Roses such as the Graham Thomas and Lady Emma Hamiltons need quite a bit of support. I generally don't get a good opportunity unless the kids are at nursery or in bed as they just pull all the canes out and start sword fighting!