Pick that rose!

First of all two confessions. I'm a bit late this week with my bunch. On Friday toddler was a bit ill, nothing that a bit of calpol couldn't resolve, but nevertheless. Then on Saturday morning, it rained. No, it poured. Flowers need to be picked early in the morning as that gives them the longest vase life, so I cowardly decided to postpone for another day and headed out to pick early Sunday morning instead.

Now my second confession. Last week's bunch only lasted for two days. I left it in the hot conservatory and the roses really couldn't handle that. They basically fully opened in a day and after one more day it was all over. Surprisingly the foxgloves did really well. They were still great after five days in the full blazing sun and I should have just moved the bunch, picked new roses and continued to enjoy it, but it was a mad week and I simply didn't get around to it. 

In the last few days all of my rose bushes have covered themselves in blooms. Roses flower for months but, with a few exceptions, only if you keep deadheading them. Most varieties will stop producing flowers once they have set seeds ie hips so you need to trick them into continuing producing flowers by removing every single one when finished flowering. Picking some for a vase is of course having the same effect and will only encourage your bush to produce more flowers while you enjoy some indoors!

Left is Munstead Wood, which is a marvelous deep crimson rose with a terrific scent and an intricate shape. 









In the next vase I've put another three of my fragrant favourites, the yellow Golden Celebration, Fellowship (orange) and Tess D'Urberville (red). 

The above roses are all from the garden. On the allotment I have three Queen of Sweden bushes specifically for cut flowers. The carnations have also started to bloom, and the Sweet Williams (Dianthus barbatus) nearly. With a bit of rosemary it makes a lovely bunch! 

I have moved all of these out of the sun and am sure that they will last longer than last week's bunch. I'll let you know next week.