I went out this morning, following a plan I've had in mind for a couple of days, and snapped some shots of the garden, and in particular some of its more looming roses. I love big plants. The photos aren't good, but I hope give an idea of what's going on.

Here are the lofting dragon arms of 'La Mortola', putting out new growth after its spring bloom. We built it a pergola a few years ago as it kept outgrowing its space, and as it's a wickedly thorny rose that I want, but not in contact with my body. This plant starts down below the terrace, climbs up to the rail, then up to the pergola, with part of it rambling into the massive bay laurel seen here on the left.

Summer greenery: the road going down from the house to the shade garden, a stretch which we planted some years ago, mostly with fruit trees. The hillside above belongs to the neighbors. We have several figs in this area, most of them grown from suckers of local trees we liked; the first crop came to nothing, but the second crop is looking promising, now that it's finally turned sunny and warm.

Another shot of 'Archduke Joseph', a rose I find difficult to capture in its entirety. It starts down lower to the left, takes over the persimmon, which you can't see from this angle because the Archduke is concealing it, then continues triumphantly onto the wisteria pergola. I spend some time trying to keep the wisteria out of the persimmon and out of 'Archduke Joseph', which I call "amazing" because it is. This plant is about twenty years old and is on its own roots.

A bit of Rosa moschata tumbling out of its cage. We recently built a pergola to keep it off our heads when going out and out of the shed; it's also gotten up onto the pergola, visible on the right, which supports three other climbers. R. moschata likes the support, and is building itself up into quite a respectable climber. Along with the roses, in this area we have Confederate jasmine, as it's called in Florida, and true jasmine on the other side: thank goodness, they have their own trellises.

Around the corner from R. moschata, under the pergola with the three climbers (all in need of pruning). I think that's persicaria on the left, along with agapanthus, and at the end of the pergola a small-leaved, yellow-variegated privet: I don't know its name. Nobody gets passionate about privet, but when this kind is in full sunny leaf in spring and early summer, it's as lovely a shrub as I know. Ugly in winter, but you can't have everything.