Carpet Roses

This morning we drove Sheila to New Milton where she attended a Quaker meeting whilst we repaired to Redcliffe Garden Centre in Bashley. After making a few purchases, we drank coffee before returning to transport our friend to the railway station for her trip home.

Two large window box planters were the first items we carried away. For a bit of fun and because we like surprises, we also bought a rose labelled ‘lost label’. We won’t know what it is until it blooms. The woman at the cash desk thought the name began with A, because that is the section in which she found it. Well, that’s a start.

Next came Deep Secret, a wonderfully fragrant, dark red beauty.

We also bought a carpet rose, which is a new venture for us. I dug a hole in the front garden, and filled it with compost. The head gardener then stirred in rose feed and gave it a can full of water. It is just coming into bud.

This is what the website of Anthony Tesselaar has to say about the variety:

‘Flower Carpet® roses – also often referred to as The Carpet Rose® – are the world’s #1 ground cover rose.   Once established they can provide up to 2,000 flowers from spring till fall,  are so easy to care for and have exceptional disease resistance. Drought and low water tolerance:    These roses have a two tier root system which allows their surface roots to use any available water near the surface,  and once established,  their tap roots seek out any lower level water in drought conditions. So what do you have to do?   When planting, to help them establish, mix a handful of fertilizer into the soil around the roots and keep the area around the plant moist for the first six months. Pruning?  All you need is a pair of garden shears and  then cut back,  any-way-which-way,  to 1/3rd of the bush size in late winter/early spring and you’re done.  NO GUESSING, NO WORRYING,  NO KIDDING.  Come spring they burst forth again with their glossy new green foliage ready for the mass of new flowers that begin in late Spring.  Perfect for any garden or landscape,  large or small. With NEXT GENERATION Flower Carpet roses, refined breeding has produced improved heat and humidity tolerance on top of its existing disease resistance.  These next generation Flower Carpet roses include AMBER, SCARLET and PINK SUPREME. No wonder Flower Carpet ground cover roses have received over 25 Gold and International Rose Awards.’

We chose SCARLET, which just happens to be one of the NEXT GENERATION.

I refrained from purchasing Tequila Sunrise, but could not resist photographing it, because it reminded me of the excellent work of MaxReynolds: Sunrise, Sunset and other Visions on WordPress.

Lost Label and Deep Secret are destined for the projected rose garden, the paving of which was further progressed today by Aaron and Robin. The rose Elizabeth rescued can be seen against the back fence.

Elsewhere in the garden, different poppies continue to pop up,

and a small pink rose, virtually invisible last year, in one of the flower beds, probably belongs in a patio.

A hoverfly samples a verbena bonarensis,

while bees prefer the yellow bottle brush plant.

This evening last night’s dinner was reprised. And very good it was.