Birthday Treats

In amongst my birthday presents at the end of July were some garden vouchers from my friend, C; I love it when I get presents for the garden and the vouchers have the bonus that I can go and choose from plants, tools etc.

So a good excuse for another visit to the Country Garden Plant Centre and their plethora of roses.  I made my annual trip there in early June and now I had an excuse to revisit.


Etoile de Holland?

We have an old climbing rose here at Holly Grove that is the deepest red and has the most astonishingly beautiful scent and I have spent sometime trying to identify it.  I had come to the conclusion that it was most probably Etoile de Holland and the lady at Country Garden was also of that opinion; so a large specimen of this rose was destined for Holly Grove.

Birthday Girl

Next I wanted a shrub rose for the border along the entrance drive to Holly Grove.  On my last visit I bought Erfurt and it is doing well in this location.  How lovely when I found my perfect rose to compliment Erfurt, and its name is so appropriate: Birthday Girl!  So she joined the climber in the trolley.


Hertfordshire

Now, I should have stopped at this point as I had used up my vouchers, but...I was tempted by two more roses: another ground cover rose this time from the Counties range, Hertfordshire and another shrub rose, Sally Holmes.  After taking time to consider my purchases with a cup of tea and piece of delicious cake it was time to drag the trolley to the cash desk, load the car and head back to Holly Grove for planting. 
Thank you C for my lovely roses, I'll be thinking of you each time I see them in our garden.