Old Roses before the rain arrived. The fabulous Tudor rose 'Tuscany' (look at those sculpted petals!), Rosa Centifolia Variegata aka 'Cottage Maid' (looking like raspberry ripple ice cream) & two Moss roses 'Nuits de Young' (Laffay, 1845) & Mme Louis Lévêque (Lévêque, 1898) 🌹 🌱 #Roses

Today's rose is the delightful variegated Gallica 'Tricolore de Flandre' (Parmentier, 1844). Small to medium fragrant double blooms of white heavily striped with purple & pink & eventually opening to a button eye. A very pretty lovely scented rose that makes a small 3ft bush. 🌹🌱 #Roses

I am beyond excited to have found this elusive & rare Black Hairstreak butterfly on the farm here in south Rutland today. I have spent years hoping to see one & it fluttered past me & perched on the rim of a livestock drinker! They live in thick blackthorn scrub (we have plenty). #UKButterflies

The orchard wildflowers are beginning to open. Already teeming with insects 🐛🐜🐝🪲🐞🦗🕷🪳

Today's rose is my absolute favourite, the beautiful Damask 'Celsiana' (R. damascena mutabilis; unknown, before 1750). A tall shrub or small climber it is covered in large ruffled partially double blush to pale pink blooms with the most exquisite strong perfume. Summer flowering🌹🌱 #Roses

A few white roses. Large fragrant lemony white blooms of 'Paul's Lemon Pillar' (George Paul, 1915). Pretty Painted Damask 'Léda' (anon, 1818). Gorgeous white blend Floribunda 'Margaret Merrill' (Harness, 1977). Creamy white 'Nelsons Pride' (Amanda Beales, 2006) loved by hoverflies 🌹🌱 #Roses

Cinnabar moth in the meadow

Today's rose is a favourite, the Bourbon 'Mrs Paul' (George Paul, 1891). Very large blush pink to salmon scalloped double blooms with a strong fragrance. Repeat flowers. An absolutely gorgeous rose raised in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire from a seedling of Mme Isaac Periere 🌹🌱 #Roses

Just look at these beautiful garlic scapes gifted to me by the wonderful @royandtanyaorganic.bsky.social so that I can pickle them. They are fabulous - both the scapes & the people! 💕 🌱

The first of my rose hedges is in flower. Rosa gallica complicata has large pink & white papery thin blooms & a gorgeous fragrance. In previous years I have collected the petals to make tea, rose vinegar & rose jelly. I will do so again this year as they are such a treat🌹🌱 #Roses

Farmer's Fields Arthur Lismer 1917

Today's rose is the fabulously fragrant perpetual flowering Bourbon treasure 'La Reine Victoria' (Schwartz, 1872). Silvery pink globular blooms waft strong perfume of old rose & Turkish Delight around the soft green foliage. It is a pure joy to pause & inhale the divine scent 🌹🌱 #Roses

Today's newly opened rose is the fragrant Bourbon 'Sir Joseph Paxton' (Laffay, 1852). Deep pink to magenta blooms are initially quartered then open to become more delightfully muddled. The dark green foliage sets off the blooms beautifully. A repear-flowering small bush. 🌹 #Roses 🌱

Coppery Eyebrook sunset

Today's rose is the climbing Tea Noisette 'Souvenir de Mme Léonie Viennot' (Bernaix, 1898). Very beautiful large fragrant silvery pink loose blooms with tinges of coral, primrose yellow & copper. A healthy grower it can reach 12ft. A really lovely beautifully scented old rose🌹🌱 #Roses

Today's #rose is the very pretty Rugosa 'Fru Dagmar Hastrup' (Hastrup, 1914). Discovered by Knud Julianus Hastrup at the Hastrup Nursery in Vanloese near Copenhagen. Fabulously fragrant she is shorter than most Rugosas rarely exceeding 3ft & forms a small bush. Loved by bees 🌹🐝 🌱 #Roses

I never have enough of my own garlic scapes so have bought Elephant Garlic ones from the Garlic Farm to pickle. Cut into 3 inch lengths with homegrown chives I will pickle them in cider vinegar with black peppercorns, star anise, allspice berries, coriander seeds & bay leaves. 😋 🍽

For #RoseWednesday 🌹the lovely, floriferous, scented 'Blush Noisette' (Noisette, 1814). A seedling of Champneys' Pink Cluster (Champneys, 1802) it was raised by Phillipe Noisette in Charleston, South Carolina. An early Noisette rose & a short climber with a musky clove fragrance 🌱 #Roses

Today's rose is the delightful, diminuitive Marie Pavié (Alégatière, 1888). A continuous flowering Dwarf Polyantha. The sweetly-scented, small, semi-double blooms open a deep blush pink eventually fading to white. A small thornless upright bush typically reaching 2ft tall. 🌹🌱 #Roses

Breezy morning. The first of the Hybrid Perpetual roses is in flower: 'Reine des Violettes' (Mille-Malet, 1860). Lovely, quartered lilac purple blooms with a strong fragrance. It makes a good sized, repeat-flowering bush or small climber with few thorns. 🌹🌱

Today's newly opened rose is Hume's Blush Tea-Scented China. Imported from the East Indies 1809 by Sir Abraham Hume. Despite war in 1810 special arrangements were made by the British & French Admiralties to send it to Empress Josephine's Garden at the Château de la Malmaison. 🌹🌱 #Roses

Today's newly opened #rose is the wild Scots rose R. spinosissima 'Falkland'. Small highly scented lilac pink flowers eventually fade to white. A naturally suckering small thorny bush, about 3ft tall, covered with masses of blooms amongst thin pinnate leaves. A treasure 🌹🌱 #Roses

Peony-type tulip 'Queensland' looking stunning. Rose pink ruffled fringed petals reminding me of lumps of powder-coated turkish delight ⚘️🌱

Sunny start to the day. On the edge of the wildflower meadow the Iranian medlar is in full bloom. My first ever good view of a Whitethroat, fetching a long grass stem while making occasional rasping calls & diving low into the brambles. Both Greater & Lesser Whitethroat nest here

Sunset sky. Glowering in the distance as another storm blows away. A day of getting soaked but I am pleased with the rain. We needed it ☔️

Raindrops on wisteria flowers after a few sharp showers, a rumble of thunder & some hail ⛈️ 🌱

For #RoseWednesday🌹 this week the first of this year's Bourbon #roses, the fabulously fragrant blush to pale pink 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' (Jean Beluze, 1843). Blooming just behind her is the scarlet hybrid Floribunda/Polyantha 'Dusky Maiden' (Edward Burton de la Grice, 1947). 🌱

Deciduous azalea 'Irene Koster'. The wonderful, strongly scented flowers are a seashell pink with a butter yellow blotch. An occidentale hybrid raised by Koster & Co in the Netherlands before 1925. Currently perfuming the garden. Loved by bees & hoverflies 🐝 🌱

Goodbye box hedge! Sadly after fending them off for a few years the box moth infestation has arrived. I have hard pruned the infected parts off & put them in the green waste bin but fear the loss of the hedge is inevitable. Well, on the bright side more space for new roses 🌹🌱

Sunset emu. Clear sky & a cold easterly wind. I potted on my cucumbers & squashes today but have brought them back inside as temperatures for the next 2 nights are due hover not far enough above freezing for my liking.

Today's #rose is the Dunwich rose - a small very ferny bush absolutely covered in scented white flowers with pretty golden stamens. A wild Scots rose (R. spinosissima Dunwichiensis) found growing on the dunes near Dunwich. Normally spring flowering but can occasionally repeat 🌹🌱 #Roses

Today's #rose is 'Gloire de Dijon' (Jacotot, 1849). A climbing Tea-Noisette the quartered buff apricot blooms have a wonderfully strong perfume. Bred from a cross between Bourbon 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' (Béluze, 1843) & Tea-Noisette 'Desprez à Fleur Jaune' (Desprez, 1828)🌹🌱 #Roses

Sunset at Eyebrook Reservoir with water skimming Common Terns & vocal Coots. My favourite Horse Chestnut tree looking glorious.

Today's rose is Rosa rugosa alba. Named ('rugosa') for its wrinkled leaves it is creates a delightful thorny bush with repeat-flowering intensely fragrant papery white blooms. Its gorgeous orangey-red large hips are high in vitamin C & make excellent jelly, teas & rosehip syrup🌹🌱 #Roses

Sunset sky as the clouds roll in.

Late-flowering daffodil Acropolis (J. Lionel Richardson, 1955). Tall fragrant double gardenia-like flowers which are apparently deer resistant. Naturalises easily. A lovely variety which hails from Waterford, Ireland 🍀 🌱

Sunset sky with haw blossom. Pale pink under the clouds

Two scented Hybrid Musk #roses bursting into flower for #RoseWednesday 🌹 The irrepressible deep pink 'Felicia' & gorgeous apricot pink 'Cornelia'. Bred by Rev Joseph Hardwick Pemberton & his rosarian sister Florence. Introduced 1926 & 1925 respectively. #Roses 🌱

Threatening clouds at sunset but no rain yet & I am not convinced we will get any. Watched a pair of swallows chasing a sparrowhawk before returning to the barn they nest in. I once saw one chase a Golden Eagle so I know they have no fear. Amazing birds.

Time to plant a few flower seeds. I keep them in this gorgeous vintage biscuit tin from Moores of Bridport (still in business & "making Dorset Knobs since 1860").

A few pinks from the garden. Tulip 'Crunchy Cummins', Lewisia 'Safira', fabulously perfumed Deciduous Azalea 'Soir de Paris' & the first bloom of Rose of the Year (ROTY) 2025 'You're My Everything' 🌹🌱 #Roses

Today's newly flowering rose is the China R. sanguinea 'Bengal Crimson' (aka Bengal Beauty). Known from China before 1805 it was introduced to the UK by Graham Stuart Thomas in 1965. It has 5 petals & a delicate scent. Can grow into a good-sized bush.🌹🌱

Tulip 'Belicia' on a dull morning. A multiflora peony type it produces three or four flowers per stem. Pale yellow eventually fading to white with dark red edging. Very eye catching ⚘️🌱

The pretty buttery yellow Rugosa 'Agnes' before the rain arrived. Covered in armoured dark red buds which open to ruffled double blooms with a citrus scent. Introduced 1902 by Dr William Saunders of the Central Experimental Farm, Ottowa from a cross with Rosa foetida persiana 🌹🌱 #Roses

Today's newly opened rose is the climbing Tea-Noisette 'Lady Waterlow' (Nabonnand, 1902). Exquisite salmon pink blooms with a golden centre are often upward facing reminding me of a tropical water lily. Gorgeous fragrance. Typically reaches 8 to 12 feet tall. So pretty🌹🌱 #Roses

It is #SaturdayMorning once again (where do the weeks go?!) so here's our traditional start to the day & week-end: Brynhild Parker's iconic view of "Interior" from 1930. This is one that I covet deeply! I'd also love to see it "in the flesh" too. #BrynhildParker #EastLondonGroup

May Day sunset. A muggy warm day. As night draws in let the seasonal festivities commence! I have Chetna Makan's coffee & walnut loaf cake for pudding 😋 🥂

Today's newly blooming #rose is the Hybrid Musk 'Penelope' (Pemberton. 1924). Perfumed flowers open a creamy seashell salmon pink & fade to white. As with the other Hybrid Musks bred by the Rev Joseph Hardwick Pemberton & his sister Florence, they flower non-stop til the frosts🌹

Beautiful May Day. A light breeze ruffling hedge & trees. Awoke to the sweet sound of a goldcrest singing in the garden apple tree (they nest in a nearby thick yew hedge so I see them frequently).

Sun setting over the sheep troughs. The first cuckoo of the year calling down towards the river 🎶; such a lovely sound. I have cut some willow withies to make a May Day wreath. Never tried it before but how hard can it be? I am not hopeful but God loves a trier. ✨️