David Austin Rose – Claire Austin (Ausprior). Featured rose of the week

January 26, 2018December 30, 2020 / themoosbachgarden / Leave a comment

Image courtesy of David Austin Roses

This beautiful English Musk rose can be grown either as a shrub or as a climbing rose. When the buds appear on this strongly perfumed rose they are of a delicate light lemon, however, when they open the flowers are a gorgeous creamy white.

The petals are arranged in concentric circles and you can get lost admiring the wonder and beauty of nature. The perfume is myrrh mixed with meadow-sweet and vanilla.

If grown as a shrub rose you should expect a plant 140cm x 90cm and if grown as a climber you should expect to achieve a height of 2.5m. If you have the space why not grow it in both forms.

For me there is something pure and untainted about white flowers and this rose would be perfect if you want to create a white border or even a white garden if you are lucky enough to have the space. Here at the Moosbach Garden we are creating multiple outdoor rooms, including a rose garden.

I’m a big fan of using Yew hedging as a backdrop for planting schemes. For me the dark green foliage of Yew contrasts beautifully with light coloured flowers and is a classic staple of garden design. Also, looking forward, as one can not help but doing with gardening, Yew is slow-growing so only needs cutting once per year and this is a very important consideration for the future.

I challenge everyone to have a go at designing their own garden space, it is amazing how satisfying it is to create something from scratch and slowly watch it mature. You can make this more affordable by buying small plants and allowing them to mature slowly. Even if you are new to gardening there are many things that you can do to create a wonderful garden on a low-budget. Carol Klein’s book “Grow your own garden” by BBC books (only available in English) is a fantastic guide to growing your own plants from seeds, cuttings and plant division.

As you would expect we have the David Austin Rose “Claire Austin” available to purchase on our website www.moosbach-schwarzwald.com or you can visit us at the Moosbach Garden and peruse all of the wonderful plants that we have for sale.

Harlow Carr (Aushouse) – featured David Austin rose of the week

January 15, 2018December 30, 2020 / themoosbachgarden / Leave a comment

Harlow Carr

David Austin rose Harlow Carr (Aushouse) – image courtesy of David Austin Roses.

This fabulous rose is part of their fragrant rose collection and is perfect for the flower border. A robust rose with medium sized fragrant flowers of a delicate rose pink. It is bushy in form and has the advantage of producing blooms almost to the ground, giving a stunning visual display.

The perfume evokes childhood memories of glorious summer days without end and the perfume is very similar to rose scented soaps. The leaves which are at first bronze in colour turn green and the rose is very disease resistant, unusual amongst many roses.

In height and spread it can grow to 120 x 90 cm but this can be improved by planting 3 of this excellent rose in a triangle 1 metre apart giving the effect of one large bush. It can also be used as a hedging plant and is an excellent way to divide a garden space. At 120cm this does not form a tall hedge and if you want to create a substantial hedge then I would recommend one of the Rugosa roses like Sarah Van Fleet, Mrs Anthony Waterer or Wild Edric.

We have this rose for sale on our website at www.moosbach-schwarzwald.com

We also have a selection of delphiniums, acanthus, sweet peas and day lilies for sale.

Pink roses combine especially well with blue flowers such as Salvia, Lavender and Delphiniums. Like all flowers I recomment planting in groups rather than individually which can lack the impact of group plantings, groups of plants should drift into each other in a naturalistic way and if you have the space be repeated at intervals within a flower border.

Happy gardening!

Gertrude Jekyll – our featured rose of the week

January 11, 2018August 28, 2018 / themoosbachgarden / Leave a comment

Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant'

Gertrude Jekyll (Ausbord) Image courtesy of David Austin Roses.

David Austin English Roses are the epitome of summer and add class and a timeless beauty to any garden. Over the next few weeks we will be showcasing 9 different David Austin Roses, all of which are available to buy on our website.

Gertrude Jekyll (pronounced Jee – Kell) was an English Edwardian garden designer and plantswoman who influenced the way most people garden today. She was instrumental in defining how plant combinations in flower borders were put together.

This beautiful rose is named after her and was voted the Nations favourite rose in the United Kingdom. It produces gorgeous pink roses with a very strong perfume, reminiscent of the Damask roses. Whilst it is not a climbing rose it can produce quite tall stems and is better suited to the back of the flower bed, or against a wall or rose arch, I treat it like a semi-climbing rose. However, you can keep this rose as a lower, bushier rose by selective pruning.

I think this rose needs to be planted somewhere that you, your family and guests walk past everyday so that it can be seen and smelled in all of its glory. If you want to create a spectacular display plant 3 of these roses in a triangle, one metre apart and you will be rewarded time and time again.

We have these glorious roses for sale on our website www.moosbach-schwarzwald.com

Available for collection or delivery from February 2018.

The Wonder of Roses

November 11, 2017December 31, 2020 / themoosbachgarden / 2 Comments

For those of you who thought that a rose was just a rose, (as I pretty much did) then welcome to a whole new world that you can explore. In David Austin’s book “The Rose” you can kind find a plethora of concise and expertly crafted information on the different types of roses and how long they have been around. To the uninitiated there are tea roses, floribunda roses, climbing roses and rambling roses and I suspect that everyone is aware of those. What I found most interesting and inspirational is the concept of using the older roses that only flower once per year in your garden. This was the norm until the introduction of the Chinese repeat flowering roses. David Austin comments in his book that we have become so used to having repeat flowering roses in our gardens that the concept of a rose that only flowers once is almost alien to us. However, if you have a larger garden with enough space why not plant an Alba, Gallica or a Damask rose? Because these only flower once per year they are absolutely stunning as all of their energy and love goes into producing one glorious display of flowers. I for one have purchased and planted 8 of these roses and a good point is made by David Austin that we expect no more from other shrubs like rhododendrons for example. I have planted mine alongside paths where they can be admired as you stroll along the many paths in our garden. Admittedly we are lucky enough to have 16 acres at our disposal but even in a smaller space I think that they can be a show piece. I have chosen (as a starting point) Celsiana, Quatre Saisons, York and Lancaster and the Alba rose alba semi plena. You can google these to get images or alternatively you could visit the David Austin website.

Now is the perfect time to plant bare root roses, the roots get a chance to spread and establish whilst the rose is not putting its energy into leaf and flower production.

I always plant mine with compost mixed with well-rotted horse manure and I don’t think that you can give them a better start than by sprinkling symbiotic fungi granules over the roots and into the planting hole.

I shall be posting photographs of these lovely roses next year when they are flowering but for now all I can do is look at their leafless branches and imagine the glory to come. Happy gardening!!