Just Another Day in Paradise

It’s been a rather rainy and windy month, this May. Often I woke up with a dull, grey sky and it’s still chilly at night. I love this weather so much!

The Rose Garden: rosa Ispahan on the left and rosa gallica Violacea on the right

Roses are very happy in this weather too: blooms last longer and colour and scents are more intense. The pruning job I did at the end of winter is really paying off, although I now realise that I could have pruned even harder: plants looked perfect with their bare branches but now, loaded with leaves and blooms and rain, they look a little smashed by the gales we’ve had… almost continuously.

I have a load of pictures to show you, so please try to be patient and maybe just scroll down quickly if you are not interested in old roses…

The rose garden on the left and the squared bed on the right, looking through the courtyard

When approaching the house from the gravel driveway, the first rose to be met is Ghislaine de Féligonde: a light yellow hybrid Multiflora (probably with r. Moschata) bred at the beginning of the last century.

rosa Ghislaine de Féligonde

It is a great rose! Mine -as you can see- is left free to form a fountain shape and makes a very elegant specimen. Leaves are dark green and deeply veined, blooms are abundant, mildly scented and of a very candescent colour, from custard yellow to barely white. Absolutely a “must have” rose in every garden. I know it could be also trained as a medium sized rambler because I gave some cuttings to my neighbours and they are training it, quite happily, on a fence.

rosa Ghislaine de Féligonde

At the moment the second show stopper, when reaching the house, is New Dawn. This rose is not old (ca. 1930) but often listed amongst species and first crosses in catalogues. It is a hybrid Wichurana and shows off all its characteristic glossy leaves that look as if someone had just polished them -one by one. I have it trained on the pillar by the portico.

rosa New Dawn

It is a large flowered climber, with pearl rose semi-double blooms and its flower buds open like a swirl. Scent is delicate but unique; a large specimen could be sniffed at a distance. Like Ghislaine de Féligonde, these roses have a main, glorious blooming period in May/June, then produce scattered flowers during all the warm season. New Dawn also sets several bunches of blood-red, fat hips. Definitely, it’s another “must have” rose, in my opinion.

rosa New Dawn

In front of the house, under the small pergola, the courtyard is now invaded with gaura lindheimeri, stipa tenuissima, centranthus ruber… and lazy dogs sunbathing. Plus there is a huge hollyhock grown from seeds scattered by the original one (which I had obtained from seeds collected -not stolen!- from the Kew Gardens in London some years ago). I am pretty confident it will bear simple, pale pink blooms with a pearl-white throat that makes the flower glisten. The size of the plant is magnificent! I just hope it won’t collapse too soon…

lazy dogs sunbathing in the courtyard

Stipa tenuissima, alcea rosea (hollyhock), gaura lindheimeri and rincospermum climbing on the pillar

This self sown ‘bed’ in the middle of the courtyard also makes a link with the gravel garden and the squared bed. Here, only verbena bonariensis and centranthus ruber had started to bloom, together with convolvolus sabaticus and sisyrinchium. All the grasses are forming a luscious background and the echinaceas will soon go “primetime” with veronicastrum, eryngium yuccifolium and other summer things.

the Squared Garden: Convolvulus Sabaticus and sisirynchium striatum

The only grass in bloom now, other than stipa tenuissima, is hordeum jubatum (I love the common English name “foxtail barley”).

Centranthus ruber, gaura lindheimeri and hordeum jubatum

It is an annual grass that grows quickly from March/April and blooms now, with a pink tinge on its longer fur. Then it goes to seed and almost disappears as quickly as it arrives. As you may know I am not a seeder so I let this plant self seed wherever it likes. I just try to push her a little bit here, a little bit there… but it always sprouts in the middle of something, like unwanted friends or my mother’s calls… This year it has taken the whole passageway from the kitchen to the gravel garden, taking only a square meter or so of free gravel space but on a busy spot. No worries; I know this plant has a short life, just like my mother’s calls, so I get the most of its beauty and bear to lift my legs when passing through. It is particularly nice with centranthus ruber and gauras since all of them have exactly the same warm pink tinge on them.

Centranthus ruber, gaura lindheimeri and hordeum jubatum

Centranthus ruber, gaura lindheimeri and hordeum jubatum

There is also rosa Rival de Paestum blooming not far from there. It echoes the light of the gauras  – and with a dark purple background provided by persicaria microcephala ‘Red Dragon’ and phormium, it really stands out! This rose is a newcomer in my garden but it flowers freely from late spring on.

Rosa Rival de Paestum with centranthus ruber

Rosa Rival de Paestum, centranthus ruber, dark green phormium and persicaria microcephala ‘Red Dragon’ on the background

The funny thing is that this layer of persicaria and phormium also shelters the fine pinks and  whites from primary colours showing off on the other side: the yellow phlomis russelliana mixed with cyan nigella seedlings and magenta centranthus.

Phlomis russelliana, nigella damascena and centranthus ruber

Speaking of magenta and purple… I am not a big fan of tomato red in the garden but I love all the other shades of red, from magenta to purple and orange too. In the rose garden there are quite a few of them mixing up: like rosa gallica Ombrèe Parfaite with vibrant blue salvia nemorosa, or rosa gallica Violacea contrasting with the chamois yellow of rosa Golden Moss, or rosa Jude the Obscure behind purple berberis x ottawensis or even the striped rosa gallica Belle des Jardins with burgundy penstemon ‘Blackbird’

rosa gallica Ombrée Parfaite, salvia nemorosa, stachys lanata and some blades of pennisetum alopecuroides

rosa gallica Ombrée Parfaite and salvia nemorosa

rosa gallica Violacea

rosa gallica Violacea and rosa Golden Moss, behind

rosa Golden Moss

David Austin’s rose Jude the Obscure and berberis x ottawensis

Rosa gallica Belle des Jardins with penstemon ‘Blackbird’

rosa rugosa Ruskin and Jacques Cartier

Amongst all this beuaty I feel so relaxed and pleased: all the bad things go away… and when the night comes, I know I’ve just lived another day in Paradise. The gloom then lights up with hundreds of fireflies floating in the dark and glistening like Hell.

Tags: alcea, hordeum jubatum, old roses, rose garden

• 1 June 2015
• Cà Rossa
• 32 Comments