Roses are now in full swing – my garden is full of blooms. I was never fan, finding the whole pruning thing a bit of a chore, but they produce such gorgeous flowers, with colour, sizes and attributes to suit almost any situation it’s hard not to fall in love with them.
Amongst my favourite is Rosa ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’, a climbing rose with sweetly fragranced creamy white blooms. It is quite happy in partial shade and creates a framework for other climbing plans to scramble through or it can be grown against a tree and allowed to grow into the canopy.
Team up R. 'Mme Alfred Carriere' with an early flowering clematis, such as Clematis ‘Elizabeth’, which is in flower from May and is also happy on a north facing wall. As it’s in Group 1 it will not require regular pruning so makes it easy to maintain. Or try Clematis ‘Apple Blossom’, a little fussy as it prefers a south to southwest aspect and is only semi-hardy. However, this evergreen clematis is worth the effort for the delicious, almond-scented white-pink flowers it produces in March & April. This plant is toxic to dogs if eaten.
For pruning advice follow this link https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=189