Climbing Roses
The Stables garden was dug around a hitching rail for horses. I left the post and rail in place and grew some climbing roses along it - the pink Bantry Bay and the amber yellow Maigold. They lasted well for fifteen years or so. Alas, both have now given up the struggle, probably because of my lack of watering. Sorry about that!
Roses in the Stables Garden
Bantry Bay was the first rose to be planted, and I tried to train it along the Stables hitching rail. It was a cheerful pink, but would misbehave with black spotted leaves later in the blooming season. I didn't get the feeling it was a very healthy rose. I was right.
Stables Garden Roses - 2005
Then a new honey yellow rose whose name I didn't record (I now know it was Maigold) joined the pink climber Bantry Bay. For quite some years I called it 'Windrush'. Oops. The plantings underneath changed, and several shrubs moved in - and out.
Bantry Bay and Honey Yellow Roses
The hitching rail is camouflaged well by a beautiful striped Phormium (which still survives) and the scruffiest of Lavenders, plus some bronze fennel. A slightly invasive yellow Euphorbia fills in the gaps and brightens up everything from spring on. That hitching rail is now finally disintegrating, so perhaps those two roses knew their days were numbered!
Here's an early photograph, taken in 1998. In this picture the variegated Elm tree (in the background, mid-border) is rather small and new.