Text and photos courtesy of Caroline Mercer
In June, the last of the late daffodils have died back and the garden is awash with colour. This is the month the roses in the rectory garden start to bloom. Climbing up the front wall of the rectory and just starting to flower is the pink-tinted, large white flowered, Rosa ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’. This will fill this part of the garden with its scent throughout the summer.
With its profuse pink and crimson streaked flowers Rosa gallica ‘Versicolor’, also known as Rosa mundi, adds a splash of vibrant colour to the left-hand (facing the rectory) top border. The highly scented semi-double flowers are particularly attractive to bees and other insects.
A more recent addition to the garden, in 2016, Rosa ‘Irish Hope’ (below) in front of the rectory has settled in well. This floribunda rose will produce clusters of beautiful scented, double pale yellow flowers into the autumn.
Other gems at this time of the year include a dazzling red Papaver orientale, and a truly impressive Angelica which towers over the lower wild border. At this time of year it is filled with Aquilegia ‘William Guiness’, foxgloves of various colours and pink campion, among others.
