Roses, Roses, Roses...

Finally, after some failures, new arrivals, and replacements, my thirteen archways in the Hazelnut Orchard are weeded, mulched - and the rose names fully organised. Enjoy!

The unknown rose on Archway Five came with the label Handel. It is definitely not Handel. Since I love his music, I've planted a real Handel next to him.

Some unknowns were donated roses from a friend's winter garden clean-up. They sulked through the first summer, so this is their first flowering. And the fruity rose which looks like Abraham Darby - well, I guess it could be, though I have no record of planting it.

Lady Hillingdon is hanging on to orchard life by a thread, so to speak. And I already have a Bloomfield Courage by the house, growing on its own roots. I have vigorous hopes for this new grafted one.

Smaller shrub roses have been planted to cover up any rose with bare ankles. And this rose season, 2010, has seen rust on Madame Caroline Testout and Etoile de Hollande. They've both been sprayed a few times. Souvenir de la Malmaison has looked disgracefully ugly on the last archway, and I wonder:

a) Can its rotting, balled flowers ever be forgiven?
b) Is this rose suitable for an archway anyway?

At the moment of writing I've pruned it severely, and planted two replacements at the back of the archway.