Roses

 I grow only old fashioned roses in my garden. I have tried hybrid teas and David Austins but the soil here is very poor (just sand and shells) and these modern roses need a lot of cosseting. The roses shown here are Rugosa, which don't mind sand, Bourbon and Noisette, which don't mind heat. I also grow old Tea roses and ramblers. They basically look after themselves. They flower best in the Spring but repeat flower through the summer and autumn. I disregard gardening books advice on planting in full sun as this just bakes them to a crisp. All my roses are planted in half to full shade and have been watered maybe a couple of times this summer. I like to grow climbing

 roses as the garden itself is really a series of courtyards and ground space is limited. I've had to put up serious metal supports on the walls of the house as the Early Tea climbers grow enormous in Melbourne's climate.
I order bare rooted stock in the winter from a specialist nursery in the Dandenongs. The catalogue arrived this week with hundreds of tempting varieties.The old roses have such fantastic names. I have ordered Souvenier de Mme Leonie Viennot, more Mutabilis, Comtessa de Sargosa, Arch duc Joseph and Baronne Henriette de Snoy. I have experimented with burying the grafts on the old types and it does not seem to do them any harm. The Complicata is climbing into to purple plum (Prunus cerasifera 'Nigra"). I have started to propagate cuttings so that I can have some of the stronger growers on their own roots. I think the old Wedding Day rambler in the back garden is doing this for itself; where the long canes hit the ground they are rooting just as the Albertine rose did from the neighbor's garden over the back fence. Both are 'pruned'with the chainsaw.