Ring a roses

The roses are now bursting out in my garden and glorious they look too.  Was mighty pleased to see lots of ladybird larvae in the garden this week also, as the aphids have moved in and I don't seem to be able to find time or proper weather for spraying them with insecticidal soap, so any help that the ladybirds can provide will be gratefully received!  You may recall that I planted a small (more accurately, miniscule) rose garden in my front yard last year.  The plants came through the winter well, and are quite vigorous this year.  I had decided that I would go for a yellow colour scheme for the roses, and contrasted this with the purple of clematis "Arabella" on a small obelisk in the centre of it all.  Unfortunately, I'm having the same reaction to "Caramel Fairy Tale' that I had last year, which is one of complete dislike at it's faded amber blooms, which really don't go with the other selections at all.  So, after having given it a reprieve last year,  I have decided that I will be digging it up in the fall, to be replaced with something hopefully more suitable the next spring.  Graham Thomas, on the other hand, is a complete triumph.  I absolutely love it's warm, golden blooms, which rise above perfectly healthy, lush green foliage.  In the backyard, "New Dawn" has completely festooned the garage, and is just starting to come into bloom....about 3 weeks ahead of normal schedule.  The lavender is also starting to bloom, but unfortunately my planned lavender "hedge" in the front yard is looking decidely patchy, and several of the plants clearly struggled to make it through the winter.  On the other hand, the bronze fennel that survived the winter for the first time ever in my garden, is absolutely vast!  So much so, that I had to hack some of it back yesterday to avoid it crowding out some other plants!  In a peculiar moment of experimentation on Saturday morning, I decided to try pickling some of the stems.  Not at all sure of the likelihood that this will result in a success at the end of the day, but I'll give it a few weeks to mature and see what we end up with.   I did crack open the last jar of pickled beans from last year this weekend, so that was a reminder that I definitely need to make more of those this summer...they are perfect with a cocktail and a little bit of strong cheddar or parmesan!

Graham Thomas - absolutely lovely warm golden colour.

This clematis on a trellis by my deck, flowers all they way through until October.

This rose was a transplant from another garden....it has the most amazing fragrance.

Another transplant...popular with the aphids!

New Dawn, just starting to come out on the side of my garage.  It's reached prodigious proportions now, and has swatched the whole wall.  Should be a picture by next weekend.

Graham Thomas in early evening sunshine

This photo shows that my garden is definitely in the cottage garden style, with a bit of a jumble of plants.  Here, you can see that I need to do a bit of rearranging of the achillia and this salvia.

This allium has just been wonderful this year...and long lasting too.

Alchemilla mollis is running rampant...but very pretty, especially first thing when the dew drops are sparkling on the leaves.

Another "cottage garden" looking photo.

From this angle, my lavender hedge looks fairly successful....but in reality it hasn't filled in successfully, and a few patches are not faring well.  Jury is out on whether I replaced weak specimens, or try something else at the front of the garden.