PATIO ROSES

I have decided to grow more roses and less vegetables.  It is far too disheartening constantly battling the rain, the wind and the cold where I live.  This year has been diabolical.  Very few peas have germinated - it was the same with sweet peas, two packets and not one has germinated - and even the radishes, that everyone should be able to grow, are doing nothing.  The carrot seed has germinated but the plants are about an inch tall.  The Tumbling Tom tomato plants which I grew last year and the year before yielded very decent crops but this year's plants, three of them, have very few tomatoes on them and those that are there are green. 

Ruby Ruby

I have bought three patio roses today.  I've never grown them before but the nice thing is that they remain quite small bushes and so I can grow them in tubs and move them around as I please.  The flowers are only a couple of inches across but the plants are very floriferous.   The leaves are shiny which I always think hints at disease resistance; all the same, I have already sprayed them against fungal diseases, just in case.

Sweet Wishes

Carefree Days

 I love how Carefree Days opens with that lovely soft yellow inside.   It really is pretty.

Carefree Days

The garden centre I went to today is Gordon Riggs at Walsden, Lancashire.  I believe there is another one a little further south, in Rochdale.  The one at Walsden is massive with everything you could possibly need in the garden except I don't think they sell lawn mowers and the like but you can buy garden furniture, conservatory furniture, and many other things like solar lights.  The plants are usually very healthy and cheaper than elsewhere. 

Gordon Rigg garden centre, Walsden, Lancashire.  Photo taken from Gordon Rigg cafe.