roses, roses all the way

Or maybe not that poem, which is inauspicious now that I think about it. Oh well. Here's more garden news.

The rosa mundi is blooming properly now, so here's what it looks like when it's fully open. Rather gaudy, isn't it? Like a little circus tent.


And one of the mystery gallicas has bloomed. It's either Rosa Gallica itself, or the Apothecary's Rose. I don't know how to tell, since they look ... they look like this. Both of them, so it could be either.


In the front yard, Sir Walter Raleigh has bloomed, big waxy blossoms. This photo is a bit blurry because a breeze came up just then, and even when I held the stem it wasn't quite steady.










This is a bud of Sir Walter, and maybe gives you a better idea of the petal texture than the full-blown rose does.





Charles de Mills, looking ever so Gallic (ha ha). Honestly, it looks so much like one of the gallicas in the back. After a few days being this lovely pink, it turns purple-violet.





Jacques Cartier, properly named as an explorer, because it's sprawling out over Alain Blanchard and its other neighbour. Or perhaps Jacques is more of a coloniser than an explorer?

Lots of big pale fluffy blossoms.





And here is one of Sir Clough's blossoms, which are ridiculously large this year. My hand is there for scale, not for steadying. I should get a picture of the whole bush, too.








Bourbon Queen blossoms in a frenzy. Look at this!



In other blooming news, Chimps has undergone rewrites and a title change to "On the Transmontane Run with the Aerial Mail Express", and it has been bought by Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
Woohoo!
So everyone should visit BCS and drop some money in the donation jar, okay?