My childhood hero Lee Bailey once described June as the month in which the roses were practically tumbling off the trellises. Bailey’s book ‘Country Flowers’ turned me into a gardener at the ripe old age of twelve, and it’s been a comforting passion of mine ever since. In much of that time, however, roses were not something I grew very often. Andy had a rose garden when I met him, back when he had a yard of good air circulation, and summers seemed less hot and humid. We’ve tried a few roses in our current backyard – a Peace rose that came back but never quite produced what it had promised, a couple of Knockouts that did produce, but inexplicably refused to come back after one difficult winter, and a Rosa rugosa which is doing a little too well and must not be reined in. In gardening there is often no happy medium, but still we try… and a rose is worth the effort.
