My gardening journey began six months ago with David Austin roses. I have always loved roses and after moving in with my mother-in-law (which has many challenges) I decided I needed a focus and interest to keep me occupied. I had taken up knitting about three years ago however due to an uncomfortable sofa and a television on high volume I wanted something that would get me outdoors. When choosing my roses I decided to look online to see what I might like. I had not realised that you could order plants on-line and have them delivered to your door. On-line shopping for plants – who would have thought! I spent hours looking at roses on the computer, pondering over colours and type. I eventually decided on six pastel shrub roses from David Austin. I had an approximate three month wait from date of order to delivery and thought this would give me time to prepare my boarder. At this stage I had no thought of soil type, conditions and definitely not bees. In my ignorance I assumed beautiful and fragrant roses would be as appealing to me as they were to bees. I choose David Austin roses simply because they seemed the best. The David Austin website had an abundance of information regarding types of roses, conditions each rose liked, how to care for your rose, distance required between planting each rose and many more facts and tips. They even had a page on what colour of plants went well with roses. Would I buy David Austin roses again? Definitely. In fact I have already spent hours mulling over their website to decide what roses I would like in my next boarder. At this stage I have decided on a row of the beautiful The Lark Ascending English shrub rose as it is very good for rose hedges, has rose hips (which do not seem so common now a days) and the bees love. What more could I possible want in a rose?
Gardening for bees 