The Cottage Smallholder

We are lucky that our garden is big enough to let some of our old roses grow into large tree like shrubs. This rose is about seven feet tall and ranges across the width of a six foot border. It is one of the old roses that I bought from Sagger’s nursery garden in Newport, Essex. I wanted to plant old varieties of roses but knew very little about these. Roger Sagger is a great guy to turn to for advice. He took a lot of time to find the perfect rose for each aspect.

Fifteen years later the roses have matured from the six inch sticklike things in long pots to roses that have a massive impact. Roses seem to initiate a passionate response in me, especially if I can bury my nose in a flower and enjoy their heady scent. Roseraie de L’Hay is my favourite by far. I don’t need to sniff, the scent is overwhelming when I walk through the rose arches and turn towards the small pond and the chickens. This rose lives near the end of a long twenty five foot border between the small orchard area and the chicken run.

This rose has been flowering well for about three weeks now. These are the months when she sings all her major operatic roles. As she has grown so large, she has become Wagnerian. Later in the summer she flowers a little on and off, now singing the occasional haunting song rather than the grand operas of May and June. And when her petals fall, they look beautiful on the grass