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| Go greener |
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| With a growing number of gardeners eschewing chemicals in favour of natural alternatives, we can suggest some effective products from our organic gardening selection |
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| Relax and refresh |
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| Good food freshly prepared daily, aromatic coffee, chilled wine and a grassy play area for the children. What more could you need? |
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| Food heaven |
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| Our Farm Shop is heaven for food lovers! Delicious handmade food, top quality groceries, fresh fruit and vegetables and stylish cookware and gifts. |
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| The Discovery Walk |
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| As thousands of daffodils herald the spring, stroll or stride around our Walk while the youngsters enjoy the Nature Trail |
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Days of wine and shrub roses!
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| Thursday, 3rd July 2008 |
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IN THE GARDEN WITH PETA MARSHALL
It’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show time again, and one part of it I always enjoy is the rose marquee. This is where many of the country’s rose breeders and nurseries put together displays of some of their newest and best varieties.
But at the moment I have a ‘thing’ for shrub roses. You can forget your Hybrid Teas and your Floribundas…my fad for now are the shrubbier roses with tight-petalled flowers in old-fashioned style.
The hundreds of species and varieties of shrub rose probably account for more than three quarters of the total number of roses. And they are divided into many different races, styles and groups.
Most shrub roses were grown in the larger gardens of the 19th and early 20th centuries – in the gardening years before the large-flowered hybrids became available. These old-fashioned roses can be further divided into the following:
Alba: These have soft, drooping grey-green foliage. They are vigorous plants that usually require rigorous pruning to keep them in check. They generally repel pests and diseases. Flowers appear in a single flush in mid-summer, and they are pink or white, and highly scented. These are the best roses for growing in a shady part of the garden.
Bourbon: In the early 1800s a hybrid occurred between an autumn-flowering Damask rose and a China rose – and the Bourbon group was born. The fragrant, rounded flowers, comprising many large petals, quickly became sought after for Victorian gardens. They also bloom in autumn as well as early summer. You can still buy them today, but they have largely been superceded by the Hybrid Perpetuals.
Centifolia: This is sometimes called the cabbage rose because of its double, globular flowers. These are not perfect garden plants, in that the stems are lax and need supporting if they are to show off their best. They are not as sturdy, nor as robust as Alba or Rugosa roses, but they do have lovely colours and strong fragrance.
China: The China roses have been immensely important in the development of modern hybrid bush and shrub varieties. They generally have a slender, open habit and bear large clusters of small flowers throughout summer. They are not always so hardy, and will suffer in cold or exposed positions.
Damask: The fragrance is the first thing one thinks of when talking about Damask roses; it is incredibly powerful. The arching stems are weak, however, usually causing the flowers to droop. Blooms come in a single mid-summer flush. The historical roses of the Royal Houses of York and Lancaster are Damasks.
Gallica: These are ideal for anyone interested in old shrub roses, but only have room for a few. They do not generally grow bigger than 4ft (1.2m) in height. Almost always early summer flowering, and they offer a fairly limited range of colours. Many of them date pre-17th century. The better forms, however, have been bred in the past 150 years.
Hybrid musk: At the beginning of the 20th century an Englishman, the Rev Joseph Pemberton, introduced and named this group of roses. They are scented like the old musk rose, but they are not particularly closely linked to it. They flower in early summer, and produce a particularly good second flush in early autumn.
Hybrid perpetual: Towards the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, this type of rose became the most popular throughout her Empire. Actually, they are not ‘perpetual’, in that they have two distinct flower flushes. Plants are quite vigorous for small gardens, and the flowers are cup-shaped.
Moss: Around the year 1700 an unknown Centifolia rose produced a sport, which bore masses of distinctive sticky ‘hairs’ in brown or green all over the upper parts of the flower stalks, and the green parts of the flower bases. This became the first Moss rose, and many have been developed since. The highly fragrant blooms appear just once in summer.
Polyantha: A group of very hardy, low-growing shrub roses, rarely reaching taller than 3ft (90cm). These plants produce large clusters of small roses, more or less continuously throughout summer and well into autumn. These were the forerunners of the Floribundas, and have been more or less superceded by them.
Rugosa: Both the original Rosa rugosa, and its many modern hybrids are hardy, tolerant roses; they will grow in such poor soils and exposed places that would cause most other types of rose to perish. These plants are dense, thorny and tall, and are perhaps the best types of rose to grow for hedging.
Modern shrub roses: This is a widely diverse group with little in common apart from the fact that they have originated since the 1970s. Most, but not all, are repeat flowering. Examples are the many dozens of excellent varieties to come from breeder David Austin, where many have been grouped together and classed as ‘English’ roses.
Species roses: Finally, this is where we put all of the wild roses. They can be referred to by their Latin names, but many also are known by their common names. Examples are Rosa laevigata and R. canina, also known respectively as the wild rose and dog rose. Most species roses tend to bloom only once a year, and this is usually before the majority of Hybrid Teas and Floribundas get in to full swing. The origin of most species roses is lost in history, or was never known.
That’s just a taster! Most of these roses are going to be in flower now, so it’s a great time to pop down to the garden centre to see what’s available.
Happy gardening!
This week in your garden
Feed tomato plants twice weekly with a fruit-promoting fertiliser high in potash. Pinch out side shoots and remove fallen fruits before they rot.
Thin apples, spacing dessert varieties 10-15cm (4-6in), and cookers 15-23cm (6-9in) apart.
Add water fleas (daphnia) to new ponds: these will feed on the algae that turn water green, and are most useful while oxygenating plants and other aquatics are becoming established.
Peta Marshall is the plant centre manager at Priory Farm in Nutfield. Website: www.prioryfarm.co.uk
NEXT WEEK: The art of topiary
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