Old rose and new rose

Thurs 5th March
Weather: Sharp, cold & misty in the morning, followed by glorious sunshine. Most of the day was about 10°C. Stripping down to t'shirts was to be seen today! It felt like a proper spring day, lots of crocuses & galanthuses were wide open.

I pruned a huge Rosa called Cerise Bouquet, I only cut off any flowered shoots, as it is growing through a tree of Prunus lusitanica 'Variegata', so we wanted it to retain its strength as much as possible.

Then I worked on Rosa 'The Fairy' & Rosa 'Perle d'Or'  in the long border, both flower on new wood, so I pruned them a bit differently to the ones that I have been doing, which have been on old wood. As they flower on all stems, I did the thinning and taking out of weaker or not so favourable stems as I went along, as well as taking off all flowered stem heads. I always tried to leave at least two or three buds when I cut any stem down. Then if necessary I would ensure that the rose was well shaped.

Rosa 'The Fairy' in the middle and some little pink flowers of Cardamine quinquefolia starting to come out under the Hellebore.