Few words this morning. No moaning about the dry soil. No mention of what has to be done in the garden. Just photos of some iris and roses in the garden. But a few names and a couple of explanations. I just can’t help myself.

This was bred by Monty Byers and I had the good fortune to visit him in the late 80s.Many of his iris were ahead of their time and are still popular today. This was introduced in 1988 and was awarded the American Dykes Medal in 1998. It is tall, has rather small flowers, and the stems are a bit thin but it is beautiful, fragrant and, among the iris I brought with me, survived a lot of hardship and is instantly recognisable – most of my iris have lost their labels but that doesn’t matter with this one!

Among the iris I brought with me were some seedlings from crosses I made a long time ago. None are worth keeping and this one is nothing special but I will keep it because it was a survivor – no other reason!

And so some more:

Two roses that look similar but are very different: The relatively recent (2015) ‘W B Yeats’ bred by Dickson’s Roses, Co Down. It is compact, very showy and healthy.

And ‘Scharlachglut’ bred by Kordes and introduced in 1952.

It is a modern shrub rose (or Gallica Hybrid). It is a strong grower and has masses of large, single flowers that are followed by large, showy hips. If it is deadheaded it will have a second flush of flowers (but no hips). My plant is just starting to bloom.

I had to move it two years ago (in March) for a photoshoot and it has recovered very well and is now more than 2m high.

Neither of these have any notable scent.

‘Stanwell Perpetual’ continues to delight me.

As does ‘Ellen Willmott’

And both ARE scented.

rosa scharlachglut, rosa stanwell perpetual, rosa w b yeats