The garden in June

I love roses and the roses in our garden are at their best in June. As a child my Dad would always pick the first bud for my Mum on her birthday on the 4th June, now buds start to appear on the roses in May. 

Constance Spry - a climber including the aphids!

I came across this quote the other day from Abraham Lincoln
"We can complain the rose bush have thorns, or we can rejoice that thorn bushes have roses."
I like looking at things positively and I will have to remember this next time my finger gets pricked by a thorn!

Golden celebration (a David  Austin rose), my parents were given this to celebrate their golden anniversary in 2007 - I inherited it and it is still blooming well.

Nevada, this flowers all summer if you dead head it. At the moment it is dripping with flower heads..
Louise Odier, another David Austin rose, scented and repeat flowering
Oriental poppies are another of my favourites, they don't flower for long, but I welcome them in the garden for the short time that they appear. If you cut them back they might to flower again but I have never succeeded. We also have the pink one too - Patty's plum (shown on my photo scavenger post for May)
Oriental poppy "Perrys White"


Foxgloves and daisies

The wildlife pond water is quite green, but we have frogs, tadpoles, newts and water boatmen making it their home. In the foreground is Geranium Macrorrhizum another versatile plant.
We have quite a large number of  herbaceous geraniums, the slugs and snails don't eat them and they provide good ground cover and come in lots of different colours. They also look good under the roses.

Geranium magnificum, the veins stand out so well

The vegetable garden- I'm afraid I haven't mentioned this very much so far, my husband does most of the work in this area, but it provides us with a good harvest during the season.

A view back down the garden, we just need less rain now so we can get out and enjoy it! The other morning I came down to breakfast to see that the lawn was covered in slugs! I counted 365 as I picked them up, which took a while!

Sorry this post is longer than I intended. I get a bit carried away with plants!

I'm off on on holiday to Scotland so no posts for a week.
Sarah

Comments

  1. Hello Sarah:
    Have a wonderful, slug free holiday!!

    Your garden is looking so very pretty at the moment with so much in flower and everything looking so very verdant, doubtless helped by all the rain of which, of course, you must be so tired.

    In our Herefordshire garden we underplanted many of our old fashioned shrub roses with hardy geraniums, the colours of each complementing one another.

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  2. Lovely rose photos - I felt I could smell them as I looked at them! Have a great holiday and hope the sun shines for you.

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  3. Beautiful post and pictures Sarah,
    I am wishing you a wonderful time on your trip away in Scotland.....
    Maria x

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  4. What a beautiful garden you have Sarah. We have a very small one at the back but unfortunately I'm not at all green fingered, anything I plant or sow never seems to do well no matter how hard I try.

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  5. Your garden looks beautiful. I bet those roses smell gorgeous. xx

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  6. Hi Sarah, don't apologise for the long floral post, I loved each photo, just wish I could smell the roses also! And I have a soft spot for geraninums too, that last photo of your perennial border makes me swoon! It also motivates me to keep working on my own garden which has lots of NZ natives but I want more roses, perennials etc. Have a lovely holiday in Scotland, Sx

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  7. Hi Sarah your garden is divine, the plants that you kindly gave me are all doing well, we have just finished the pond so now on the hunt for pond plants. Have a lovely holiday in Scotland, what a long way. Julie xxx

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  8. Oh Sarah, what a beautiful garden you have. Roses are my favourite flower, the main flower theme at my wedding was cream roses.

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  9. Dear Sarah, Enjoy your holiday in Scotland! I share the same Birthday as your mum! Your roses look fantastic and how sweet of your dad to give the first bud of the year to your mum - such a romantic thing to do! 365 slugs - one for each day of the year! Yugh! Rather you than me collecting those - they make my skin crawl!
    June

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  10. aren't roses wonderful? thank you for sharing all the lovely photos. (i'm your newest follower, who came over from cow parsley.)
    have a wonderful day.
    ann

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  11. Enjoy your hols - it is lovely up here today so fingers crossed for you.
    What a horrific number of slugs. juliex

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  12. Only English people have gardens like you have! I admire it so very much! One day I will tour England and visit all the gardens. I hope you are having a wonderful time in Scotland (love it there as well and I hope you'll post about it...) Christa

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  13. What a beautiful garden Sarah - your roses are wonderful! You won't want to leave them to go on holiday (well perhaps you will). Enjoy Scotland, give me a wave....

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  14. What a lovely trip around your garden - very beautiful. You need a Flora-duck to gobble up all those lovely slugs - unfortunately she's partial to newts & tadpoles too! You've inspired me to invest in some more roses - I can smell them from here! Enjoy your holiday.

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  15. Hi Sarah... such a nicee garden!
    Hope you have the best of time in your holidays!!!!
    Can't wait to read about Scotland
    XOXO

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  16. How lovely is your garden Sarah. I love it.
    I can see that you both work hard in it. your array of flowers is so beautiful. how i wish i could have that here, alas the heat and the area wont allow a lot of flowers to grow.
    I love the idea of the geraniums under the roses. thanks for naming a few.. i have a couple the same as yours..
    I must tell you, i am typing this with a cut finger, all bandaged up. I was out working with Pedro in the garden..he had time to help me on tuesday.. i was pruning and clipping dead heads of my rose bushes and cut my finger by mistake...ohhh what a silly thing to do .. the pain was awful. Blood all over. I thought i had cut off the top of my index finger.. thank G. its on the mend now.
    Like you Sarah. I love my roses.. thorns or no thorns... and yes, I second that to be posative is the only way forward..
    Have a wonderful holiday... look forward to a blog about your visit.
    happy days
    val

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  17. There's a little surprise for you on my blog! xxx

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  18. We have been traveling so I am behind again but I read all your posts and admired your photos. Your flowers are so lovely. We planted a David Austin rose two years ago and only got 1 rose each year. We have too much shade. I enjoyed your posts on the Jubilee – I got carried away watching it live and wrote two posts on it.

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  19. Hi Sarah,

    You have such a beautiful garden and loved having a look at all your gorgeous roses.
    The David Austin roses are so gorgeous, love the old look and many of them have a fragrance also.
    Have a wonderful time away in Scotland.

    Happy new week and safe travels
    Hugs
    Carolyn

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  20. Enjoy Scotland - and that's a useful tip about geraniums and slugs.

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  21. So gorgeous! I love the routine your dad had of picking the first rose for your mum, that is so sweet. I love your terracotta pots haphazardly stored behind the Louise Odier rose, love them! I hope you are having a wonderful trip.

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  22. How is life in Scotland? I heard that it is wet also in Ireland. Let me tell you - here it was terribly warm today. Too much really. Tomorrow the temperature will drop and I am glad. I hope you are enjoying yourself all the same! Take care, Christa

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  23. Your garden is gorgeous and you've just reminded me - I really must pick some more roses....before the wind and the rain knock them apart.

    Happy weekend,

    Nina xxx

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  24. Hi Sarah...so sad all the roses are being brutalised by the howling winds swirling around our hilltop. Nothing fir it, I simply have to cut them and bring them inside! I hope you have a head a brilliant holibobs in Scotland, I think probably the best of the weather?

    Sarah -x-

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  25. Sarah, your garden is so amazing. What a beautiful garden you and your Husband have. Do not be sorry for the long post. I enjoyed looking at your garden. Your Louise Odier rose bush puts out a gorgeous rose. The color is so vibrant. Hope to see more of your garden.
    Blessings,
    Bobbie Lynn

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