Fifteen roses ordered this year, all perfumed with repeat blooms. And I have just come through three weeks paralyzed on the floor with an unrelentingly painful back. I haven’t been out of the house in that time, yet in my basement I have onions and peas ready for planting, tomatoes and peppers now graduating from flats into their own pots, and wildflower plugs fattening that I intend to place like jigsaw puzzle pieces into gaps on the front hills. If I am dreaming in technicolor … well, I’m not even exploring that possibility.
For the south facing barn wall two Souvenir de la Malmaison should over time climb nearly twenty feet each to meet in the middle.
When my prior supplier gave me the bad news that their Souvenir de la Malmaison had not made it through the winter, I thankfully found a supplier near Niagara-on-the-Lake to add to my resources. Kiss Me Kate too I pick up tomorrow from Palatine Fruit & Roses.
I have fabulous memories of my tour of Highgrove. Two years prior the rose garden at Kew was like a candy shop of David Austin varieties, and for scent none there could surpass Princess Alexandra of Kent. If they survive Gray County winters, it will be a small miracle, but try I must.
And then there are peas.
Garden Canada 