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The organiser of Didsbury Open Gardens, Maria Stripling, came round the other day to ask if I knew of any gardens that might like to open this year for charity. Think of formidably organised Margot from The Good Life crossed with a poodle, and that’s Maria! I sat up to attention.
A couple of suitable gardens sprang to mind, if only their nervous owners could be persuaded. This wasn’t good enough for Maria – would I ask my readers if any of you avid gardeners out there would consider opening too? Well, would you? If you live in Didsbury and your garden could be lovely in June, please email
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and on Sunday 13th June you could, like me, be one of nearly thirty gardens open to the public!
Her visit panicked me into getting out into the garden in a determined bid to tame the roses – such a feature of any June garden if properly dealt with now. The thing to remember about most climbers is to always train the stems as near to horizontal as possible – this slows the flow of the sap and makes every single bud along the stem produce a flowering shoot. So, unlike my neighbour, who lets her roses grow up the wall unchecked, resulting in one sad and solitary bloom, my wall is literally covered in puffs of Pink Perfection.
Shrub roses can be pruned now, down to a couple of feet below where you want the blooms to be in summer. I like mine to be waist high for easy sniffing.
“What about black spot?” I hear you ask. Well, I have a friend who is, by her own admission, rather fat, but as she artfully always wears black, people tend to focus on her rather beautiful face. And so it is with roses. Just cover up their spotty nether regions by planting a Geranium Brookside with a Viola cornuta to twine among them, and visitors will have eyes only for their pretty faces.
One final tip – if a rose really isn’t thriving, try pouring a watering can full of a dilute tomato food such as Tomorite over it; this works just like a glass of wine does on this grumpy gardener at the end of a prickly pruning session!
Anne Britt is a garden designer. Contact her at
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