My idea for training my new rose

Ghislaine De Feligonde Rambling Rose

My Mum bought me this lovely new rose for my birthday last year it has clusters of these beautiful little flowers.

I don't know where my mum bought it from - there is no nursery name on the label but I did see on the internet that David Austen Roses sell it. Link below if you want to treat yourself.

https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/ghislaine-de-feligonde

Its done very well in the gravel area near the spring seat - its grown one stem around 6 foot long in 7 months and quite a few other stems that are only around 2 foot long.

I've put lengths of wire on the fence I want it to ramble up but most of the new shoots aren't long enough to reach the wires I want to tie them to.

I knew that you are meant to choose about 6 strong stems and fan them out when training a climbing rose so I tied lengths of garden twine to the base of the rose and tied them onto the wires to form a fan. I was then able to use more twine to tie 6 of the strongest shoots to the twine fan so that they will grow in the direction I want them to.

Any weaker shoots I pruned back to an outward facing bud at different heights to give some flowering growth at different levels of the plant including near the base.

The prunings I cut into sections to see if I can grow this rose from cuttings. Its a long shot. I cut above a leaf joint, as the books suggest and then just below a leaf joint at the base of each cutting. I've buried them up to half their length and in groups of three at various points along the fence. Its not cost me anything to try though I doubt I'll have much luck.

Its likely they will produce leaves and look as though they are doing well for a few months at least but I will only know if I've been successful once they actually start growing upwards. I'll let you know how I get on.

Happy Gardening - even if the weather is far from ideal
Caroline
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To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

Zentangle Garden

With proverb!

Zentangle can be so relaxing to do - better than drugs I reckon.

I used to meditate for many years which was good but I find it so much easier and better for my anxiety to do something rather than do tricks with my mind. Zentangle was a real find!

Its cheap too - a very fine ink pen costs only around £2.50 - and any scraps of reasonably absorbent paper. Lots of patterns online - particularly on Pinterest to copy too.

Caroline
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To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

Problem solved - Evergreens to cover a problem fence frugally

Hi

My garden is wider than it is long. It also has a horrendous 6 foot high wooden fence all the way round it. Disguising it is an ongoing problem in the winter particularly at the back of the garden where I can't use shrubs as the back fence only has a shallow border in front of it which, as its the sunniest place in our N facing garden is needed for roses! There are also too many climbers on it to paint it.

I have a clematis Montana on it and although its covered a lot of fence as it loses its leaves in winter.

I have also had various Ivy's which can look really nice but  they invade the border below where I like to grow things!I swear they wait until I'm not looking then grows another 4 foot in either direction tangling up with other climbers and smothering plants in my borders.

Last year I've put in a lot of lovely climbing roses which are so far only a couple of feet high but should take off in 2018. So my job over the last few days has been to trim back climbers I want less of such as the Montana and Ivy to make space for the roses and to put in more wires for their support and begin to train them on the wire.

I've also put in some Boston Ivy - Parthenocissus Tricuspidata Veitchii - which has amazing red leaves in autumn that look particularly spectacular when wet. It only went in last year but has shoots up to 3 foot high so I'm hopeful for 2018.

All this - and still ugly bare patches in winter. Wish I could have a lovely brick wall!

So being a frugal gardener  - how can I solve the problem.

I'vealready put in some self seeded cotoneaster Horizontalis I found in another part of the garden - but they are tiny at the moment. I shall have a hunt around for other suitable seedlings.

I've also pinched some cuttings of a white buddleia last week and have popped them in a pot. I am hoping I can put some of these into the borders in front of the fence as they can be semi evergreen.

I have a Lonicera Nitida which is continually breeding babies nearby - this would be evergreen and would cover a bit of the fence if I can keep it back narrow enough so it doesn't take up much of the border - I shall dig one of the babies up at the weekend  - it would be a good time to transplant it. 

I also have a mature Trachelospermum Jasminoides in the front garden. I've had it about 15 years - its evergreen but has some red colour in the leaves in autumn and winter which is nice. It also has strongly scented white flower in summer. Its easy to keep under control.  According to the RHS website propagation is by layering or semihardwood cuttings. I think I'll try both! Another job for the weekend.


Will this year be the one where my fence looks nice in winter? Wish me luck!



Take care
Caroline
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To learn more about me and Caroline's Cottage Gardens please visit my website. https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/

My most favourite rose of all time

Dear Reader

This stunning rose is Lady Emma Hamilton. It is the best rose ever I think!


https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/lady-emma-hamilton

I bought mine from David Austin Roses - link above.

I bought it last year and have fallen in love with it. I've a lot of lovely roses, some with fantastic scents in my garden but this is the most beautiful and has the best scent of all. It is named after the mistress of Lord Nelson!

It is the most gorgeous blend of colours. I usually go for things like blush pink roses, lavender, catmint, and generally pastel shades in my garden - this is an unusual choice for me but it looks stunning with the colours I already have.

It leaves are a wonderful colour - you can just make them out in the picture, I'm not sure how to describe the colour but there is dark green, red and bronze in there!

The scent is just wonderful its like marmalade and citrus. I picked a bloom and put it on the dash of my car just as we were heading off carpacking  in the wilds of the NW coast of Scotland. For a week I could bury my nose in it and enjoy the scent which lasted, unchanged for at least a week.

Its repeat flowering, its leaves are still on the plant and its mid January. It has good disease resistance and certainly has been looking healthy in my garden. It has won an award of garden merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. It also won 1st Prize for its fragrance in the Prix International at the Nantes trials in France. I think it richly deserves these awards and I hope it got to go to the ceremonies and had a good tea afterwards.

I do hope you try it out in your garden

Caroline
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To learn more about me please visit
https://sites.google.com/site/carolinescottagegardens/


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Key words - rose scent "cottage gardens" best perfect "English rose" "david Austin" "recommended rose"

free plants found in first gardening session of the year!

Free plants - Ivy Leaved Toadflax and Golden Marjoram

Good morning

Yesterday morning the weather was brilliant so I headed out for my first gardening session of 2018.

In the sunny border in my front garden which is surrounded by a brick wall and slightly raised I spent time clearing away dead leaves, twigs and cut back the dead growth from plants like Aquilegia and Feverfew. I cut back my Nepeta (cat mint) which is now looking a bit straggly and was cheered to find new growth waiting for spring, I'd only planted it last summer so it was reassuring to see its doing fine.

As I tidied up I found a few seedlings of an Cymbalaria Muralis (Ivy Leaved Toadflax)  an old cottage garden flower.  Last year I had put a mass of them on a tub and they looked lovely. So I put the seedlings by the edge of the wall at the front of the border, grouped together. They should look nice spilling over the low wall in the summer.

I also cut back  a golden marjoram which I have had for many years and is a large clump which had become straggly, again underneath was a mass of young leaves. I love it as it gives a lovely splash of colour to the border all year round. Once it was cut back  around the edge I found a couple of little baby golden marjoram plants that have grown out from the main plant. I dug them up and put them either side of the path to the front door so they spill over the path a little. They should look nice with the welsh poppies, daffodils and yellow aquilegia I have in that area.

Happy freebie hunting

Caroline
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In praise of catmint - stunning combined with herbs and roses.

Good morning

Hope you slept well.

I've always resisted buying catmint - I imagined it smelled bad and had visions of it encouraging cats to roll all over my garden.

How wrong I was. I bought some last year for the first time and this year I'm going to take lots and lots of cuttings and dot it around my cottage garden. It flowered right up to mid December and now in early January it still has good foliage to add winter interest to my cottage garden border. The multitude of cats I imagined were no where to be seen and the smell whilst not the best if you squash the leaves and stick your nose into it, from any other perspective is non existent.

The leaves are a delicate grey green which go so well with herbs like rosemary, thyme, purple sage and lavender. Catmint looks wonderful with most  delicately coloured roses such as those from David Austin but particularly with delicate blush roses like Penelope. I have the above combination of flowers in my cottage garden border at the front of my house.

Key to the picture above:

Top Left is rose Penelope (from David Austin Roses). Top right is Catmint – Nepeta Racemosa Walkers Low (from Perry Hill Nurseries). Bottom left is Purple Sage  and Thyme and bottom right is Lavender Munstead (widely available)

Please note I'm not connected with any plant sellers mentioned.

Key words: Cottage Garden Gardening Plant combinations Rose Catmint Sage Thyme Lavender Beautiful pastel Herbs Scent easy to grow