Bantry Bay Rose

The rose Bantry Bay has a more subtle pink colour than some of my other pink roses. I grow it over archways and along fences. Bantry Bay is a strong grower with short stubby lateral growth. But do I really like it so much? I'm sometimes not so sure...

There is just a tendency to black spot later in the season, and rain can make the flowers look quite blotchy.

An early Bantry Bay rose grows in the Stables border and drapes itself over a horse hitching rail. In early summer its pink flowers are visible from the house. But later on in the season things do get rather scruffy.

My least successful grows over the Pond Paddock archway. Well, that is the theory, anyway - it's been years and Bantry Bay hasn't quite scaled the giddy heights I expected it would. I blame the Clematis Montana which is definitely on a mission!

Bantry Bay Rose in the Orchard

Then in the winter of 2008 I took in an unwanted rose from a friend's garden, and it turned out to be another Bantry Bay. Oh no! But this time something did go right - I planted the rose in open air and sunshine up an archway in the orchard. And it's absolutely drop-dead gorgeous!

Perhaps all that Bantry Bay needs is some space to breathe...