Two Gardens and Many More Roses

Over the years roses have often featured in these blogs, for the good reason that our heavy clay on the whole pleases them, so that at least in the Gers they are bound to be a feature of anybody's garden. I am not sure that I have got much new information to give - the only roses that I have so far acquired this year are Reine des Violettes, a Hybrid Perpetual, which used to be famous, with violet, fragrant flowers that appear on and off throughout the summer, and another with violet/purple flowers, in appearance very like The Bishop but sadly without fragrance and only once flowering. In the latter case it was really the name that I fell for, or rather its history, Rosier Denise, the name given to it by the excellent grower of roses, Yan Surguet, he of Les Roses Anciennes du jardin de Talos, since it came from a garden of a friend and is so far unidentified. Still what I thought might be of interest is to mention one or two roses that seem to me to be trouble free, and so make an impact in a Massif or Mixed Border.

Top of my list as always come the the now ancient Hybrid Musks with for continous flower power Penelope  leading the way. But many others are very good including Cornelia of a slightly apricot hue, Felicia a good pink and Moonlight a very good white, but that is only a short list. What I would like specially to mention is Trier, as I recently read someone being rather sniffy about it. It is one of the parents of the Hybrid Musks. It makes quite quickly a very large bush, two meters by two if not larger,. It is covered with semi-double whitish flower - not as white admittedly as one of its children, the aforementioned Moonlight, - and repeats well, so if you have the space it does make a real impact over a long period.

Of what I shall call the John and Becky Hook roses with their wonderful collection of China and Tea roses at La Roseraie du Desert., the ones that do exceptionally well with us would include the Archiduc Joseph, which I confess I may have referred to wrongly as Archiduc Charles in previous blogs, and General Schablikine. Both are of quite deep red,though both coming from the Nabonnand stable have a slight hint of of copper. And both are exceptionally good doers in flower much of the summer, as indeed of a rather similar colour is the Comtesse du Cayla, though she is a Guillot rose. But Nabonnand could produce purer colours including two that I am delighted to grow here. Alice Hamilton is a good pink and like the ones so far mentioned a good doer. Noëlla Nabonnand is a lovely deep red, if a little on the blowsy side, and should eventually make a large feature, though she is taking some time to get away. Arguably an even better deep red/crimson from La Roseriaie du Desert, but a Hybrid perpetual  and not from Nabonnand, is Souvenir de Alphonse Lavallée.  It is a real winner, with amongst other things a lovely scent. And finally Perle d'Or, with its continous clusters of what Peter Beales calls 'buff-yellow' to which I might add a touch of peach. I think it is a China, and certainly 'Old' but you would never be disappointed to have it.

I am of a generation who had a tendency to consider that any rose bred after the Second World War was bound to to be lacking in 'gout'. Thanks to people such as Graham Stuart Thomas and Vita Sackville 'Old Fashioned' roses - Albas, Bourbons, Galliacas Hybrid Perpetuals, Moss and no doubt others, were what any discerning gardener hankered after and I confess that I still do. Amongst my favourites, and very much in this category of 'good doers' remain for instance Celsiana, in fact a Damask, Fantin Latour, and probably my favourite rose of all, Queen of Denmark/Konigin von Danemark. All these three, and indeed many other wonderful roses that come into this category have the disadvantage of only flowering once. Then along came David Austin who started to breed roses with many of the qualities of the 'Old-Fashioned', including very often wonderful scent, but which repeated well, and not surprisingly, though I gather it took some time, these have really taken off, with the result that some of us rather snobby gardeners can be a little bit dismissive about them, which does not prevent us having two in this garden that I can strongly recommend, Crown Princess Margareta and Jude the Obscure - and I had almost forgotten Pat Austin, with its very strong peachy, coppery colour.

That  I am utterly wrong to be so was demonstrated by a recent visit to an outstanding garden near to St Puy in the Gers, that I have only recently discovered. It is owned by by Ann and James Jowitt, and it is no surprise that it is not the first garden that they have created - a former English garden of theirs made the front cover of 'Country Life. Thus, they have brought the experience of a life time of gardening together to bear on what by any standards is a wonderful achievement. I guess that it is rather in the Sissinghurst mould with amongst other things a number of colour themed borders, but if that suggests over-contrivance that would be quite wrong. What they have managed is very good design with a very sympathetic ambience, helped perhaps by the existence of vestiges of an ancient 'hameau' including old walls, but this feel is not achieved without a great deal of work. But all this by way of saying that they  have very much gone for the Austin rose, and I have to say that they were looking extremely splendid in an early summer, which because of the excessive rainfall, has not been an easy one for roses. I would say that a visit to their garden is a must. They have one or two Open Days a year, and are very happy to allow keen gardeners to look round their garden by appointment - telephone number 05 62 28 97 04

Another garden in the Gers that has taught me the error of my snobbish ways is of course La Coursiana at La Romieu, a garden that has featured in these blogs, so that I will not say very much more about it. Here though it is the eclecticism that is most striking with every kind of rose from very ancient to very modern, from Gallicas to Ground Cover, that is the feature, with I would not dare to guess how many different varieties on show. Of course there are some that I would not choose myself but there are two that I particularly like and grow successfully in this garden. One is Pretty Lady, which until recently I have been calling wrongly Lovely Lady. It is difficult to explain why I like it. The flowers are well-shaped but their colour is not exceptional being of a biscuity/slightly pinkish, may be even peachy hue that are produced in mass through much of the summer. But all I can say is that they immediately caught my eye and made me want to have a plant, and incidentally there are plants for sale at La Coursiana at very reasonable prices including many roses. The other is Bossa Nova with very full pink flowers on a healthy bush that repeat well.

Of course everybody will have their favourite roses. The choice is enormous and ever expanding. I have emphasised 'good doers' but none are trouble free, most requiring at least some pruning, and their look is much improved by dead heading, all of which takes a good deal of time. But in the two very different gardens that I have mentioned, Taillefer of Ann and James Jowitt, and la Coursiana of the Delannoy family, you will see roses grown to perfection, though I should stress that neither is primarily a rose garden. But of both these gardens I can only echo what Vita Sackville West, a great lover of roses herself, once wrote:'It is a truely satisfactory thing to see a garden well schemed and wisely planted'. So visit them both and enjoy!