How to choose roses, and how to build up a planting plan for your borders

Plus: how to keep your roses disease-free, with NO chemicals involved

Hello - there’s no huge post from me today as I am up to my eyes in a book deadline, writing captions and checking for typos, and I don’t want to send you drivel!

There’s lots in store for this weekend’s article, though, as those of you who joined in our Gardener’s Question Time on Monday will know - you witnessed the lightbulbs firing live with “Ooooh and I must tell you about this… and write about that…..” and on it went. I did write a list, and it will all be coming to you on Saturday.

If you haven’t yet seen Susie Middleton’s gorgeous colour studies, do go and sink yourself in them. I was thinking that her sherbets and peach melba were particularly mouth-watering, and then I realised I love them so much because they work so well with the new rosebed that I planted last year.

I had a bit of a play and look! Heaven!

I don’t know if, last May, you made the connection between this article on new roses from last February:

and this article in May:

Yes, that’s right, that rose bottom centre of the grid of my suggested roses, was in fact this beauty which has been a sell-out ever since: