The whole garden is pretty marvelous, with the once-flowering old roses in full bloom. Flowering is earlier than it used to be, and we look to be heading into a summer as dreadful as that of 2017, but for now, the roses are wonderful.

A few in particular. 'Blanche Moreau', white Moss, that has suckered out to form a patch of many square yards and is in full bloom. It's getting into 'Common Moss's territory and I'm going to have to cut it back, but not until it's done flowering. 'Enfant de France', one of my beloved Hybrid Damasks and rather a favorite even in this group, growing next to 'Marchesa Boccella', a similar type but with deeper pink flowers, both of them with their strong knobbly canes arching over from the weight of the great sumptuous blooms. There's a drought going on; their soil is like concrete; but fat lot they care. I have a second plant of 'Enfant' growing in the worst gray clay, in full sun, in dense perennial running grass, never fertilized or watered, and it too is making headway in these adverse conditions and blooming splendidly.

Third rose is a mystery rambler gotten as a cutting from a friend who didn't know its name, as it arrived mislabeled to her. It's a Multiflora rambler, one of the few successful ones of this class in my garden, with clear pink blooms and beautiful fresh green foliage, some rebloom, no scent to speak of, but welcome even so. It grows together with an eleagnus, which gives it support, while the gray green eleagnus foliage constrasts pleasantly with the fresh green of the rose leaves. Next to the eleagnus-rose group grows a Leyland cypress, left unpruned, and the rose, which has been working on this for a while, has just started to get into the cypress: yesterday I saw a couple of pink blooms looking down at me from twelve or fifteen feet up in the air. Good luck to it, I say.

Roses are full of wonder. As are all plants. Enjoy your gardens, folks!