EVERYTHING'S COMING UP - INCLUDING ROSES

Just had a little mooch around my garden and delighted to see that despite the wind and lack of rain, things are growing well.  Although not many roses are in bloom as yet, there are tons of buds getting nice and fat and they will be opening within the next week or two.  Albertine did not flower at all last year which was disappointing but it is going to make up for it this year.  It is loaded with bud.  Just got to watch out for mildew which is a problem with Albertine and can affect it badly if the rose doesn't get enough water. As it is grown in a corner with a six foot fence supporting it, and it is at the top end of the garden, I have to be vigilant.

Albertine.  A vigorous rambler with savage thorns but a sweet fragrance.

Iceberg - This is a shrub but there is a climbing version too.  It is floriferous and fragrant

Princess Alexandra of Kent - a David Austin shrub with a divine fragrance.

I have never grown raspberries before but the one I have in a narrow strip of border by the back fence is showing great promise.  It's in its second year now and has thrown out four or five strong canes for next year.  There are a few ripe berries already and they shame the little ones you see in the supermarket. 

The strawberries!  What can I say but bumper crop.  No sign of disease despite the poor plants being left neglected in two growing bags right through the most awful winter and I didnt even clear the leaves away.  Maybe the leaves protected the crowns but you are supposed to clear them, to help prevent the onset of disease. 

The Tumbling Tom tomatoe are on course to be as good as those I grew last year.  I had quite a glut of them then.  I have also, this year, three of the upright type - Gardener's Delight.  I was sent free seeds by Which Magazine and felt obliged to give them a go.  They are growing against a fence and look promising. 

All in all, it promises to be a good year.  But I am keeping a keen eye out for greenfly and other pests such as whitefly that seem to like dry weather.  I've fed the lawn a chemical which helps the grass resist drought.  Of course, it will bucket down for weeks now!  The tomatoes keep getting a regular dose of Tomorite in the hope that they will resist disease and viruses that can play havoc with them. 

I love my hanging baskets although I have to admit, they don't always conform to the desired shape.  This year I have avoided the taller plants such as petunia which seemed to draw butterflies and, thus, caterpillars last year.  I have a marble table under a couple of the baskets and last year kept finding all these green pellets all over which were unpleasant and I had no idea what they were at first.  I should have known that green caterpillars eating green leaves would have green poop!

So, this year in my hanging baskets I have gone for bacopa (sutera Gulliver) which has a much larger flower than the ordinary bacopa; the usual trailing lobelia, blue (Sapphire) and white; a variegated ivy; and begonia, upright and trailing. 

Bacopa Sutera Gulliver

The begonias are in orange, yellow, and orange/yellow.

Aren't they lovely?