After a couple of days spent largely working in the Small Orto, weeding and tidying our so-called propagating beds/vegetable patch, today I headed down into the big garden to have a look at the herbaceous peonies. They're coming into bloom now, or ought to be, and if I don't make a point of visiting them, with all there is to do in the garden, I might miss out on their flowering entirely. So far the only peony blooming was an anemone flowered form, with palely cream center parts and soft pink guard petals, and lots of blooms and buds; thriving, and pretty as can be. The rest are coming along. Aside from looking at the peonies, I did a good deal of shearing of the thigh-high grass. This is our garden's factory of organic matter, and it works, but at this time of year it gets messy, falling all over the plants I actually want to see. Then I wandered eastward, over the ditch and up to have a look at the double line of roses planted along the boundary of the garden, and the ones uphill of them, on the other side of the path.

These roses were planted mostly in the period 2007-2011, roughly speaking, in poor ground of course, as we have no other kind, and for the last two years or so they've been quite neglected. This being the case, I was expecting to see a massacre, but actually the beds were on the whole an encouraging sight. No doubt there have been losses, but what I noticed were the roses that are thriving. On the uphill side were a couple of patches of suckering roses--the names are in one of my record-keeping books, but I don't have them on hand--a Gallica and a Moss, both covering a good deal of ground. I remember Jackie's comment on roses that cover square meters: the Gallica I estimated at perhaps four sq. m.; the Moss likewise quite ambitious. I think there's a second variety growing with the Moss, it too suckering, but will wait for the flowering to find out just how many kinds are there. Perhaps there's even a third variety. Lots of mystery; lots of fun.

I noticed something interesting. Out in this part of the garden is the only plant of 'Koenigin von Daenemark' that I've ever succeeded in growing from a cutting, in many many tries; and I was disappointed a couple of years ago to see that it was losing canes to old age and not making new ones. Well, it looks as though KvD may be suckering now, as I hope. (The grafted parent plant in almost twenty years has also never suckered, though I think I may have succeeded in layering it.) Idem for 'Duchesse de Montebello': its old canes have mostly died, but now it's suckering, which it didn't before.

In the last part of the double line of roses, the part where the soil is densest and driest: a mystery Hybrid Gallica type that DH mowed down, but is resprouting--he didn't know where the bed ended; then a white rose, which I hope may be 'Mme. Zoetmans', as my parent plant has died and I love this variety; then 'Duc de Cambridge', rampaging around, though I tried repeatedly to eliminate it. It proliferates horribly, but undeformed flowers are lovely, and the plant is a tremendous thug, not an entirely bad thing in these conditions. 'Richardii' (I think), part of it cut to the ground by DH, but it will grow back; the lovely 'Centifolia Variegata'/'Village Maid' still hanging on; something that looks like 'Blanche Moreau'; KvD, of course. Something I was given as 'Aennchen von Tharau': it looks a lot like 'Alba Maxima', and I don't trust IDs on these double white Albas anyway, but a comparison suggests that this at least isn't 'Alba Maxima', as the foliage looks different. It has grown a lot and is spraying out handsomely; and it was planted next to two clematis growing on a cage for support, and now the three are the loveliest tangle. There may be another rose kind or two in the chaos; I think I spotted what is either 'Mousseline' or 'Alfred de Dalmas'. This is the eastern end of the bed. There's also the middle part, it too looking encouraging for rose survival and growth.

I understand that not everyone wants a meadow filled with suckering once-flowering roses, many of which are not well suited for much of the U.S., and gardening tastes vary. For me, though, there is no lovelier rose sight under the sun. I was really pleased to see how stoutly most of these varieties are growing. Also pleased with the evident improvement in the soil.