Roses are regularly voted the nation's favourite plant. With such a fantastic variety of colour, scent, size and habit, it's no wonder that there's a rose to suit every garden.
Cultivated for hundreds of years there is now a huge choice of over 4000 varieties, consisting of may types – old fashioned, Hybrid Tea, Floribunda, Shrub, Climber, Patio etc. Unless you are a total perfectionist, roses are no more difficult to grow than the average shrub.
Whether you just have a hedge on one side of your garden or, a garden with laurel hedges on all sides, they will need to be pruned to retain their shape and density.
August is an excellent month to cut hedges, once their nitrogen fuelled spring surge of growth is dissipating. After shearing, the remaining nitrogen will encourage side shoots, so thickening the hedge.
Regular cutting will also mean that you are pruning soft growth rather than wood, which is harder work and will leave a unattractive structure of bereft of leaves.
The beauty of one particular Clematis has enchanted David Hall for many years, Clematis sieboldii or “Florida Bi-Colour” is his queen of the climbers and here he explains why it captivated him.
There are keen gardeners who like to cultivate many different variants of the same species, rose growers are an obvious example, but much as I love all clematis, there's only one that captured my imagination long ago and it is still the only one for me even now.
