I Never Promised You A Rose Garden

But that's what we've got.

Fifteen different rose bushes, including four standards and two miniatures. A standard rose has been planted in each corner, reminiscent of a traditional, formal rose bed. There is the ubiquitous 'Iceberg' and 'Graham Thomas' as well as 'Moody Blue' a deep lilac colour lightening to an almost blue and a deep pink carpet rose.

Amongst the rose bushes there is 'Sharifa Asma'

And the beautiful 'Aotearoa New Zealand

As well as the David Austin 'Leander'

And my favourite so far, 'Claude Monet'

I obviously have a fondness for the old fashioned Hybrid Tea bloom, as well as a strong lean towards shades of pink. Most of the bush roses came from The Warehouse- I chose carefully and made sure that each bush had at least strong canes pruned in a vase shape. I was pleasantly surprised by the selection at The Warehouse- each bush was $9.99 as opposed to Nichol's $26.99 and I was able to choose roses that weren't on Nichol's rose list. 

Each rose was carefully planted in a hole much larger than the roots, to allow for plenty of air flow and lots of nice rich earth for the plants to get their roots into. At the bottom on each hole I tossed a banana skin- roses LOVE the potassium. The ash from our pellet fire can also be dug into the garden. My method is to throw it on before heavy rain, and let the weather do the work. I also labelled each rose with their name and breed.

At the moment, each rose looks like this:

I look forward to the glorious display in Spring and Summer.