Roses at Petersham Nurseries – a little video blog

Two short videos featuring the roses within the Cutting Garden at Petersham Nurseries - Abraham Darby, The Alnwick Rose, Constance Spry, Veilchenblau, Boscobel, Eden Rose/Pierre de Ronsard, Reine des Violettes, Paul's Scarlet, Gertrude Jekyll, A Shropshire Lad, Falstaff, Rosa banksiae ... These last two are of the umbrella-frame-trained Rosa multiflora Platyphylla, or Seven Sisters. The…

Margaret Merrill – an exceptionally fragrant rose from the Oil of Ulay beauty consultant

One of my most favourite roses, which I've just bought as a standard specimen, with large ruffled creamy white and intensely fragrant flowers - a floribunda of great style, poise and with superb health. And oh! did I mention the fragrance! The rose was chosen by Oil of Ulay/Oil of Olay and named for their…

My neighbour Penny’s Penny Lane Rose

My lovely neighbour Penny has a lovely rose in her front garden - of course it would Penny Lane - and here she is (the rose that is..). Later in the year, she will have honey and apricot tones but at the moment, it is a lovely soft pink. Large blooms, carried singly and in…

The Rose Marquee at RHS Hampton Court Flower Show

A look at the other rose nurseries exhibiting at RHS Hampton Court Flower Show, which finished on Sunday. Mattocks, Fryers, Bill le Grice, Style Roses, Harkness, Peter Beales, Eastcroft Roses, Pococks.... The Historic Roses Group too, a member of which I now am. Hybrid Teas and Floribundas, in the main, with modern shrubs, some climbers…

Roses all the way; a superb specialist rose nursery in Sussex.

There seems to be a series developing here. Garden Centres I have known. Some, like Petersham Nurseries are pure fantasy, a theatrical experience where plants dress the stage, along with much else besides. Wych Cross Garden Centre, just south of East Grinstead, has magic too but for different reasons -  real passion and a collection…

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes, there beneath the blue suburban skies I sit…

My neighbour's climbing rose, Penny Lane. Bred by Harkness and introduced in 1998 (it was Rose of the Year that year). Medium sweet fragrance. 4m x 2.5m (13' x 8') As with many of the best modern repeat-flowering climbers, it is a hybrid between 'New Dawn' and a modern bush rose. Its flowers are large,…