What's flowering in Sussex now, in late July?

Stocks, Jasmine 'Clotted Cream', Foxgloves, Hollyhocks, Roses, Lillies and Day lillies, Acanthus, Japanese anemones, Delphiniums, Scabious, species Geraniums (second flowering), Clematis, Mallow (self-sown) and Lavatera 'Barnsley', Carnations, Lysimachia, Evening primoses and Rosa 'Summer Song' (see photo) ...

In spite of repeated bouts of torrential rain and near gale-force winds, many of our plants continue to flourish. Rambling roses, which grow through the fruit trees, have now finished flowering; Rosa 'Felipes Kiftsgate', Rosa 'Wedding Day', and Rosa 'Rambling Rector' flowered prolifically throughout June, showering the trees with blossom-like buds which tumbled down from the branches and opened into great swathes of white, pinky-white and creamy-white racemes. Other climbers continue to delight: Rosa 'New Dawn', Rosa 'Deprez a Fleur Jaune' and Rosa 'Blush Noisette' are smothered in flowers as I write, and are all delicately perfumed. 'New Dawn' is a wonderful rose as it will flower continuously on a north-facing wall; it is extremely disease-resistant, in fact it never seems to have black spot or mildew and its perfume, rather like 'Blush Noisette', is reminiscent of the Pond's Cold Cream which my Nan used to religiously smooth into her face at bedtime. R.'Deprez a Fleur Jaune' is stunning. Ours grows on a South-facing wall in full sun and flowers almost continuously from early Spring until late Autumn. Pink in bud, the flowers then open to a lovely apricoty yellow; they are extremely fragrant, their perfume sweetly pervasive on warm summer evenings.

Rosa 'The Fairy', a favourite, I believe, of Gertrude Jekyll, has masses of tiny pink, double flowers, and once it starts flowering, usually in July, it seems to go on until and even beyond the first frosts. It makes a lovely cut flower, its only drawback is that it is not perfumed. It's a floppy, rather unruly plant which looks good supported by low Box hedging in our garden; we have just planted one in my friend's garden; it is a young plant but looks wonderful flopping onto her new Indian sandstone paving.

The rose in the photograph in my last post is 'Jude the Obscure', I think; it is an exquisite rose and is now coming into bud again. Of course, it is one of the famed David Austen English roses. I had to cut out some leaves with blackspot (I don't use sprays as I have always been rather neurotic about chemicals in the garden where children play), so I just try to regularly clear away dead or diseased plant material. Last time I also referred to Rosa 'Summer Song' (see photo above); it continues to flower well in dappled shade, along with Rosa 'Mutabilis and Rosa 'Buff Beauty'. I have never had a 'Rosa 'Mutabilis' before, but was smitten during a recent visit to a wonderful plant nursery here in Sussex: Rushfields, which is between Hurstpierpoint and Henfield. During recent years this nursery has developed their stock of roses to the point where they are now real specialists and stock a fantastic range of extremely healthy plants. Rosa x odorata 'Mutabilis' (to give it its full name) is orange in bud and then opens to single flowers of intense pink flushed apricot; the petals, like those of Cistus 'Sunset', resemble lightly crumpled tissue paper; their delicacy reminds me of butterfly wings. The gardening expert, Dan Pearson, has described Rosa 'Mutabilis' as a 'desert island plant' and one which he would find it hard to live without; I agree. The RHS have awarded this rose their prestigious 'Award of Garden Merit', 'AGM'. What gardening books would you want when you're marooned on a desert island? For me, they would have to be books about roses.