The Secret Garden in Summer

[puddleshark]

We had an unsettled start to June: rain and wind and thunderstorms. But yesterday the sun finally came out - a warm fierce sun - and in town all the builders celebrated by taking off their shirts to reveal pallid skin and tattoos.

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Today I returned to the Secret Garden - now I know the way - and was rewarded with roses.


To reach the Secret Garden, there's a gravel track - a long gravel track - that passes through a tunnel of immense, centuries old Rhododendron Ponticum. Last time I visited, the track was dark and gloomy. This time, the rhododendron was in flower, and so were the foxgloves, and the way was lined with purple flowers. Almost sinister quantities of purple flowers.

From the car park, on foot, along a winding path through the woods. Also lined with foxgloves.



Then, passing through the gate in the tall brick wall, from shade into bright sunlight.

All the roses are in flower: the bush roses in beds planted in among allium and calendula and lavender, and the climbers winding up iron arches.








So bright. The head gardener here loves bright roses, and flouffy roses, and strange roses.


Bright roses...








Flouffy roses...


'Rachel'.










Strange roses...


'Twice in a Blue Moon', which is not a blue rose, but I'd be puzzled to say which colour it actually is.