Fabulous and floriferous, she has bloomed over the gated arch ever since she was planted. She repeats and often has flowers through the winter too. She is teamed with R. Ghislaine de Feligonde (because they didn't have two when I bought the first). I was told they would be very similar, and they are, but somehow GdeF is less satisfying than PB.

This photo is pretty old. It is now about 2m high and arching over the pond, very gracefully. One grows this rose for its fabulous, small, glaucus (grey/blue/green) coloured leaves, very pretty single pink flowers with yellow stamens (which last only a month at best) and then its great red hips which last all late Summer into Autumn..

It's very thorny so put it somewhere you won't have to be a lot. When it was smaller I had trouble with it when I cleaned the pond pump. Now it is taller I don't have the same issue so I am not planning to prune it much! In fact it has never been pruned, just the dead wood cut out.

This rose was fabulous for a number of years and grew up and over my swing seat. However, in the early days of this garden and my learning period, I didn't know about making them curve and wind round things to keep shoots and flowers low down, so everything happened on the top of the swing seat where she eventually got suffocated by the enormous Clematis montana. She was taken out (RIP) and has been replaced by R. 'High Hopes' which I am now winding ferociously around the swing seat.

Incidentally, if you use 'magic dust', more properly known as micorrhizal fungi (from Rootgrow etc), you can now plant roses safely where old roses used to be - no more cardboard boxes or different plants required.

I now never plant a major plant (shrub, tree, perennial) without it. It makes the roots grow really quickly, the plants settles in and flourishes faster and, importantly, the fox can't smell it unlike bonemeal or blood,fish&bone so they no longer dig up my plants the moment they have been planted. Hence my nomica 'Magic dust' for it. You must make sure the dust is in direct contact with the roots when you plant the plant, so only put it in once you have dug your hole, added fertiliser, mixed it, checked the height for the final planting etc. or you'll waste it - and it's not cheap.

My favourite rose I think. It flowers freely and like a floribunda, grows incredibly strongly and tall. It is supposed to be about 1m tall but grows easily to 2m each season. New growth is deep red which goes green and becomes luscious dark green foliage. It flowers all season and is pretty much the first to start and last to finish - and it smells sensational!

I think the only thing to recommend this rose is it's fragrance. I don't like the goblet shape flower, it "balls" incredibly easily and generally hates the rain. Not much use in the UK. If it doesn't ball, the flowers are very short lived.

This is one of my favourite roses. She forms quite a large, wide bush and is covered in flowers all season. They start tight and truly as beautiful as any hybrid tea, then move through a more generous bloom with yellow stamens and then blow into a whitey pink smash which stays on the plant for a good long time. A cluster in each of the different stages is a glorious sight to behold - and she smells fantastic - much better than billed (but I have a keen nose). She could only be better if her foliage was a little darker green and a little glossier but her mid green leaves seems to suit her mid pink petals very well.

This Italian buckthorn has finally found where it is happy. Having been first in the Hot bed and then in the Veg bed (neither of which it liked) it has now shot up to hide the huge water butt in the side passage and is flourishing in its pot. It has grown 1.5 metres since coming out of the ground and into a pot (albeit a very large one). Most extrodinary but very welcome since it is evergreen, looks a lot like a Pittosporum, flowers and has little black berries, all of which I can now enjoy through the kitchen window as i work and blog.

I inherited this tree and I love it. It is a fruiting cherry, has lovely blossom and the fruits are nice if I can get any before the Blackbirds finish them. I can't reach them so I eat the windfall ones while the birds take the pick of the bunch. It has grown very large recently (see Blog - There's a monster in my compost bin) and we have cut and trimmed it a number of times. It got quite a severe and professional lop in 2012.

Comes up, pretty as a picture each Spring.

I love this Mediterranean plant but we just didn't have enough sun to get it properly into flower and then it was felled by the hard winter of 2011 but I suppose four years for a non hardy plant wasn't bad.