Onwards and Upwards

What a week - temperatures soaring, no rain, almost too hot to garden but we struggled on knowing that, for our open weekend, we needed to have the garden looking shipshape. Friday we saw temperatures reach 26'C which is as hot as it gets for us. But I walked around on Friday evening and basked in the beautiful warm air, balmy evenings beating the heat of the overhead midday sun anyday. The garden was alive with the swallows and blackbirds, followed by the bats. It couldn't get any better.

Then the rain came...proper heavy straight down, soaking wet rain....and it didn't stop until Sunday evening. The thing is, we need rain....but couldn't it just wait until after the weekend??! One thing we can't control...the weather. Nonetheless we had a small group of very keen gardeners who were determined to tour the garden whatever the weather. And we've been really lucky this year so far with visits - all dry days bar the Giro D'Italia day. 

Anyway enough moaning....onwards and upwards - it's strange but I feel rather invigorated and more gardening obsessed than ever before. I have spent the last few hours researching old roses in books and online, yet again, discovering some wonderful new blogs from around the world like this one http://www.mooseyscountrygarden.com/ and http://bloomingwriter.blogspot.co.uk/

I love making rose wish lists (Baltimore Belle, Lupo, Jacques Cartier, Old Blush China The Countryman), rewriting, taking a few out (not good in the rain) adding a few more (longer flowering, good scent). There are a lot of rugosas not yet tried such as Sir Thomas Lipton....in fact, there are just too many to choose from - how lovely!

The new autumn bed starting to fill out.

Rosaraie de L'Hay

Ispahan