Early June '11

Hugh's Rosa 'Gertrude Jekyll' 2011

This is a lovely time of year. I'm sitting here looking out my window at people out walking, children playing football on the green and the garden is growing strongly. Out in my little oasis, the fragrance from the now 6 ft high sweet pea is powerful, and Rosa Gertrude Jekyll is in full flight. This David Austin type rose, named after the very famous plants person Ms Gertrude Jekyll, is a must for every garden. It has large cerise pink fragrant double flowers, that are weighing down the branches, there are so many of them. It is styled on the old english roses from days gone by and for me elicits memories of my childhood in my grannies country garden, where there was always roses blooming during the summer months. Gertrude Jekyll has some Irish connections. Our War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge (recently  visited by Queen Elizabeth) were designed by a chap called Edwin Lutyens, an architect renown for his work towards the end of the 19th Century and well into the 20th Century. Ms. Jekyll was responsible for the planting of these gardens, using herbaceous plants, such as lilies, lupins and delphiniums, combining them with hardy shrubs and plants such as lavender and box, to soften those hard landscape lines, to great effect.. My connection to this is that I worked in the Islandbridge Gardens in the early 1990's as a Botanic Garden's student, when they were being restored. I was involved in the planting of the gardens with already previously mentioned herbaceous plants and roses. Wonderful!
Back to my own plants and garden, I am now off to refresh the coating of stain on the back fencing, as we have our own VIP's calling at the weekend !!