…is also at a peak at the moment…unlike the old Roses Garden these roses repeat if dead headed( a long job but one I can actually do!)and the lavender doesn’t come into flower until the end of June, so it does have a longer period of interest….

I’ve added a few hollyhocks, but not  by any means enough to make a difference. Yet….

 

My inspiration for adding the hollyhocks is the  terrace at the rear  of Grimsthorpe Castle-the ancient medieval bit not the grand Vanborough bit ;-)

They have tons of hollyhocks mixed with lavender and roses.

The reasons for the Long Border was to break up the square-ish nature of the compartments in the garden and to add, along with the Evergreen Oak Avenue, a different atmosphere. You cant linger long in this part.(No seats!)

Over  the next few days I plan to be planting  the 150 hollyhocks Ive grown in the greenhouse, after adding copious amounts of well rotted manure to the soil. These borders have been problematical as they are sill suffering from overdoses of chemicals when the garden was just a field and was intensively  and non-organically farmed.

 

The roses in the Long Rose border are all hybrid musks,many bred by the Reverend Pemberton in his retirement. 

We have:

Moonlight

 

Bufff Beauty

Penelope

Felicia

 

Cornelia 

And some by the German breeder of roses,Kordes (*IIRC*): Nur Mahal

and Wilhelm.

 

The rose have a distinctive  rich, fruity scent that hangs in the air-the hedges help to keep in the fragrance.

When it  is humid or damp the lavnder adds to the mix and its  lovely. I always enjoy that moment in spring when you can suddnely smell lavnder  and you know the plants are emerging out of their dormancy ;-)

And tomorrow is Flower Brick Friday..any guesses as to what will be the predominant flower in the arrngement?