So as we come to end of the first flush of roses we thought it would be good to share a few more images because honestly who doesn't love roses?
We have fed our roses regularly through the growing season and we opt to use a pellet feed. Deadheading happens regularly too at least twice a week. Some people have commented on why we are dead what looks like perfectly good roses. Well in some cases it's for the love of producing art projects like the one below. Slightly imperfect blooms make a great image when all lined up. With stems having multiple blooms and impending wedding work it is good to remove the lead bloom allowing the others to follow in time for the wedding. There is nothing better than the treat of one stem with four or five perfect roses on it!
This year we interspersed our roses with nigella giving us an early annual crop and an added pest deterrent as it's thought that mixed crops make it harder for aphids to spy.
We use guide wires along the rows to tie in long stems which lend themselves to larger urn work.
This lovely milky white rose almost flushed with peach is David Austin's Litchfield Angel. It does have a tendency to nod it's head a bit so blooms need to be buried low in a bouquet or it really flourishes on the edge or an urn arrangement.
Austin's Jude the Obscure is a long term love of Maz's. She has an amazing fruity scent (the rose not Maz!) and is a classic shape for bouquet work. She is a big rose and I think looks better accompanied by others to really show her off.
A real wedding bouquet favourite Austin's Sweet Juliet. This is a real game changer rose to add to a bouquet. She has a clever knack of colour blending a bouquet from one tone to another. She hasn't been the most prolific rose in our patch but her near perfect blooms that she has produced certainly make up for her slight laziness!
Austins A Shropshire Lad has to win the award for multiple blooms on one stem. Again like all the roses we grow this one has a stunning fragrance and repeat flowers well. The blooms fade as they age which makes for a lovely choice to pick from.
Gentle Hemione has had an exceptional flowering season this year and has easily been the giant in the rose bed. She's a bit of an ice queen with a real cold pink tone. Mixed with whites she looks really refreshing and she is perfect rose to mix with the end of peonie season for a truly girly bouquet.
We will be sharing more of our rose bouquet's soon but for now it's another day of deadheading what is left in the rose garden, weeding around the base of the shrubs and giving them another feed. All in the hope that the second flush won't be too far away.
