Another Monday means another vase – and my usual link up with Cathy at Rambling In The Garden to join in with her challenge to find something from the garden to put in a vase every week of the year.
I usually expect this challenge to get easier in the summer months, but I was almost defeated today – the weather has been so appalling that most of my summer blooms are lying wet and broken on the soggy ground. All was well until Saturday afternoon when the heavens opened and we were treated to a downpour of epic proportions – the rain has carried on since then – not quite as heavy as it was during that first hour, but enough to wreak havoc on my newly flowering roses, peonies and bearded iris.
My fall back today was the bountiful sweet peas blooming in the greenhouse. Whilst I rely on the greenhouse for many winter flowers however, I feel somewhat cheated at this time of year if my only choice comes from inside. Then I remembered the beautiful Gentle Hermione. This stunning David Austin rose copes very well with the rain and sure enough the newly flowering bush had a few perfect blooms to spare.
This beautiful pale pink rose flowers profusely at this time of year and then repeats very well until late in the season.
This is one of David Austin’s English Roses, which have all been bred to combine the flower form and scent of the Old Roses with the disease resistant and repeat flowering habit of modern roses.
I grow Gentle Hermione in a group of three roses planted closely together (as recommended by David Austin) in the border that wraps around the south and west facing terraces that surround the house. Growing in a south facing position this rose copes very well with full sun all day, as well as continuing to look good in rainy weather – the perfect English Rose!!
The flowers are fully double and very large – often up to 4 inches across and have a delicious rose scent. The bush grows to about 4 feet in height and supports the heavy flowers very well.
The name comes from Hermione, the faithful wife of Leontes King of Sicilia and mother to Perdita in Shakespeare’s ‘The Winter’s Tale’.
My jug this week was a birthday present this year and is a lovely pattern from Susie Watson called Apple Blossom. I was also given the matching teapot. I have long been a fan of Susie Watson pottery and pick up odd pieces whenever I can.
I will be back this week with Wedding Wednesday, although having planned to practice an urn arrangement the sorry state of my flowers may well mean I will concentrate on button holes this week. Sadly my day at Glenham Hall was cancelled so I have no photos of the rose garden to share, but I am going to Ascot on Wednesday and am very excited to see the flowers this year – Ascot always manages something different and it is always spectacular so I will be sharing that over the weekend. Next week I am incredibly excited to be going on a Wedding Flowers Intensive course which is a joint venture between Green & Gorgeous and The Garden Gate Flower Company. Expect plenty of photos of this two day experience!!
Thank you as ever to Cathy for her dedication to this lovely meme – it really gets the week of to a positive start! Do pop over to her blog to see what she and the others have found in their, hopefully less wet, gardens this week.
Insert your profile info here, by going to Users -> Your Profile -> Biographical Info. Profile image (avatar) comes from gravatar.com. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam faucibus ornare lectus nec cursus.
Oh I love that jug and what a perfect rose that looks so gorgeous in spring blooming away and then blooms again in fall!
Oh so beautiful and your pictures are gorgeous: so soft and perfect for the subject. Yes, I love that jug and will click on the link right now. So sorry you’ve had so much rain: of course, all the flowers love it …up to a point. Hoping it improves for you very soon! Can’t wait to see the pictures next week.
Glad your Gentle Hermione could stand up the heavy rain. It’s a lovely color. It’s sad to think of many of the flowers knocked down in their prime though. Hope many will recover.
Gentle Hermione is stunning.
Gorgeous colour, so relaxing!
Great that at least some roses stand up to the rain. Hermione is a lovely shade of pink. Your images are lovely as always.
Oh Hermione is a gorgeous rose too – sadly no luxury of growing roses in 3s here! And great photos of course – thanks for the stunning results you always come up with. What a shame that the rain damaged some of your blooms – fortunately that heavy downpour of ours only took petals off spent blooms. Sorry your course was cancelled but I am glad you still have a treat to come
What an attractive looking rose Julie. I wonder which other two roses keep her company. What a shame about the heavy rainfall. It’s very dark here as I type and I think that the heavens are about to open 🙁 Hope that the wet stuff holds off tomorrow at Ascot and that you enjoy the proceedings.
Ahh – so very sweet (and the little vase as well). And always enjoy your loving and atmospheric photographs. Interesting what you say about DA and his planting recommendation! Perhaps I will be doing that in future…
We have also had such torrential rain on and off for what seems like weeks now, so I do sympathise. I have given up with staking and just cut any prostate flowers to bring indoors now, tatty or not. Your rose looks exquisite and stood up to the weather well. Very lovely!
We have had a lot of rain as well. I don’t mind, it has been so dry. I hope your flowers recover, though. Your roses look lovely. What a poetic name!
Too much rain for you and none for us – wouldn’t it be wonderful if Mother Nature was more even-handed?! Your pink rose is a gorgeous thing and I’m sure you appreciate her resilience too. I hope the rain lets up soon, Julie. Too much of even a good thing is, well, too much!
Sorry to hear the course was cancelled – the rose garden would have been so beautiful. But here we are treated to a gorgeous rose from your own garden – who could not love an old fashioned inspired scented rose and the rain seems to intensify their perfume, don’t you think.
Imagine my disappointment after fertilizing and trimming my Gentle Hermione Rose this Spring that I received only 2 blooms. The rest were deep red root stock..many, many of them. I am so disappointed ..especially after seeing a plethora of buds two weeks ago.
Can you please tell me what I should do to encourage more of the hybrid light pink blooms?
Or should I just order a new Gentle Hermione to replace this disappointing one??
Thank you for your advice.
Anne Kriz
How disappointing for you! It sounds like there is a problem with your rose – probably with the graft. If it is less than a year old I would send a photo to your supplier & they should replace it. Whether they replace it or not I would advise you get a new Gentle Hermione as there is nothing I know of that would solve this problem. If you can, find a container rose that is clearly bred by David Austin and already in flower – that way you will have a few flowers to enjoy this year and many more to look forward to next year. I hope that helps xx
Thank you SO much! Thad. It of information is just what I suspected to hear as I had pretty much reached that conclusion myself. Your wise advice helped enormously. Can’t thank you enough.