“A bit ambitious”, I thought as I set off with this load towards the pile of woody material that was my destination. Would you believe I made it? Neither would I, but I did. Slowly but surely over roughly (very rough-ly) 350m of turf. Nobody saw my victory dance…..probably for the best. 

This week I have been pruning climbing roses. Refer to the RHS publications on all matters pruning. They have been expertly explaining for decades what I could attempt to explain very confusingly here – so I will not……well, only to say that you should do it now, if you haven’t done it already. The worst of the winter weather can badly damage stems that are not tied in. Oh, and do try to train long stems horizontally; it means more flowers. It’s a little bit sciencey – stimulating more buds to break therefore increasing the chances of the plant producing more flowers – all you really need to know is……MORE FLOWERS! I am yet to meet anyone who grows roses for the delightfully prickly stems (actually I have but she is most definitely another story; no, a novel). It’s all about the flowers. 

She is ‘Woolerton Old Hall’; she is the most stunning pale apricot and she smells like heaven. She will be odds-on favourite going into 2015 but she will, as always, have strong competition.