Most regulars here will have heard me muttering that growing roses in the
west of the UK is a waste of time, so here's how my mate Phil wastes his
time here ;~))

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/DSC_0027.jpg

--
Rod

My real address is rodtheweedygardeneratmyweedyisp
Just remove the weedy bits
and transplant the appropriate symbol at.

"Rod Craddock" wrote in message
...
Most regulars here will have heard me muttering that growing roses in the
west of the UK is a waste of time, so here's how my mate Phil wastes his
time here ;~))

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/rodsgarden/DSC_0027.jpg

--
Rod

My real address is rodtheweedygardeneratmyweedyisp
Just remove the weedy bits
and transplant the appropriate symbol at.


Nice. Looks like Cotehele House?

Andy.

"Dave Poole" wrote in message
Well, I wouldn't say that growing them is a waste of time - they
positively flourish on the rich red Devon soil. The only problem is
the air is so clean and humidity levels so high that fungal diseases
are in their element - rusts and black spot abound.

Don't know if you noticed years ago that the Harry Wheatcroft & Sons nursery
was downwind of the local coal burning power station and fungal diseases
weren't a big problem except on some varieties that shouldn't have made it
to the catalogues. Once when they found rust on something they took us all
up the field to look at it!

You need to be a
bit selective about the varieties grown or simply turn a blind eye.
That's a very fine border of roses, which I think I recognise

Not unless you crept in whileI wasn't looking ;-))

where is it BTW?

http://website.lineone.net/~rodcraddock/index.html

This website is quite out of date now but I hope to rebuild it soon -
possibly next winter.

The building in the picture is 'Porth Mawr' and is referred to in the CADW
notes on the site.

We replanted the rose garden in early 2002. During the previous 2 or 3
summers it was getting very threadbare and any attempts at replanting were
being foiled by replant disease - It's been a rose garden since the end of
WWI, though old plans show some sort of formal garden there (including the
pond & fountain) going back at least 2 centuries. The design is mine with
substantial input on choice of varieties from Keith Jones of C & K Jones
http://www.jonestherose.com/

Phil and the assistant who was working with us at the time dug out all of
the beds to about 50cm and replaced the topsoil. The ropes and lavender
hedges conceal a wire netting fence to keep the bunnies out. It's beeen
particularly good this year over quite a long period.

BTW the topsoil is from development sites where Chester is expanding towards
the Dee estuary, nice rich silty stuff - not a million miles from the old
Bees Nursery site at Sealand.

--
Rod

My real address is rodtheweedygardeneratmyweedyisp
Just remove the weedy bits
and transplant the appropriate symbol at.

On 11/7/05 16:44, in article ,
"Dave Poole" wrote:

Rod Craddock wrote:

Don't know if you noticed years ago that the Harry Wheatcroft & Sons nursery
was downwind of the local coal burning power station and fungal diseases
weren't a big problem except on some varieties that shouldn't have made it
to the catalogues. Once when they found rust on something they took us all
up the field to look at it!

Yes and when their roses made it over to Worcestershire, many fell
prey to mildew, blackspot and rust.
snip
Despite the fact that there are bromeliads perched on trees in flower
at the moment, the Strelitzia and Clivias flower well in spring and
the palms and bananas are going great guns, I still occasionally yearn
for the rich, heady, myrrh-like fragrance of a really good rose.

Portland roses are supposed to be more disease-resistant than most, aren't
they?
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

In article , Dave Poole
writes

Despite the fact that there are bromeliads perched on trees in flower
at the moment, the Strelitzia and Clivias flower well in spring and
the palms and bananas are going great guns, I still occasionally yearn
for the rich, heady, myrrh-like fragrance of a really good rose.

Strelitzias, like many tropicals, are hummingbird pollinated, aren't
they? and therefore need colour but not scent. Most of our scented
flowers are scented to attract insects - but presumably there are still
pollinating insects in the tropics - are there not similarly scented
flowers? (Vanilla springs to mind - is the flower as scented as the seed
pod? - but even you wouldn't be able to grown that) - or do the insects
respond to different chemicals? Or maybe pollination by insects just
doesn't feature much?
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

In article , Dave Poole
writes
Kay wrote:

Strelitzias, like many tropicals, are hummingbird pollinated, aren't
they? and therefore need colour but not scent.

Right idea - wrong continent

Took me a long time to work that one out ... isn't Africa tropical? But
do you mean humming-birds are S American? (Birds aren't my thing)

- they are South African and therefore
pollinated by sun birds, which use the horizontal spathe as a perch
while they sip the nectar.

Insects also respond to colour however and pollinate
non-fragrant plants even in the UK .

Yes, of course. There is a whole range of pale blue/purple which show up
particularly well in the half light of the evening to attract moths,
bees are particularly attracted to cornflower blue (as you find out if
you wear a blue dress), and of course we have a whole range of UK
natives in shades of pink, blue and yellow.

Do insects respond to a different range of colour from birds? We don't
have so many bright orange british natives. And not many red.

You should see the bees visiting
the bottle brushes here - they go quite delirious in their frenzied
nectar bingeing.

No, I wasn't bemoaning a lack of choice of fragrant plants, just that
the heady fragrance of many roses (especially the old fashioned types)
is quite unique and something I miss occasionally.

Which was one of the things I was wondering - there is presumably a co-
evolution of pollinating insect and attracting chemical, and is the
chemical behind the rose scent one that had evolved in temperate areas
and not in tropical?
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"