Which roses would you like to grow? Too many names, don’t know which to choose? There is such a big difference between a small rounded rose that might only grow one metre high or wide and a rampaging rambler which will romp away to maybe 10metres. And it is even more confusing when the same named variety ‘Cecile Brunner’ can do either except one will have the epitaph ‘bush’, the other simply ‘climber’.
This is a fantastic rose in either size. Sweet, but delicately scented, it is healthy, prolific and easy to grow in sun or partial shade on rich or poor soils. Best of all, it has truly exquisite scroll like buds. These are perfect for the smallest table arrangement, for a button hole, for crystallising on top of a cake or floating on a summer punch made with rosé wine, strawberries, maybe a splash of rose liqueur, and a generous portion of sparkling water.

‘Cecile Brunner’ the bush rose would be happy for a few years in a large pot or tub, on the corner of a border besides a path. Plant cottage garden favourites such as aquilegias, foxgloves, hesperis, astrantias and geraniums next to it and you will have a fantastic June picture.
‘Cecile Brunner’ the climber is just as good but oh, so much bigger with a myriad of blooms. It festoons our gazebo and is in flower right now, as pretty as can be; so dainty, so feminine and simply my favourite rose in the garden. It has a few flowers later in the summer, but by then it is smothered in a wonderful yellow clematis called ‘Golden Tiara’.

If I had to choose one other versatile rose, it would be Rosa ‘Getrude Jekyll’. Now this has two roles in life as well. It can be very successfully grown as a shrub maybe 1.2m high and wide and is as happy in a large barrel as it is in the soil but I have a feeling it much prefers a rich diet. Tall white or blue campanulas would make excellent plants on either side with maybe some alchemilla mollis frothing at its feet.
However, if you happen to plant Rosa ‘Getrude Jekyll’ against a wall, it miraculously becomes a climber growing up to nearly 2m. The pink flowers are large and rich in colour; the fragrance is outstanding. This is definitely one for enjoying as a cut flower, filing the room with scent. Or try it with unsalted butter and sugar and make a rose filling for a sponge cake…delicious.

All my groups have it for tea at this time of year! And again in September when it has another flush. It too has a clematis growing through it. It shared its home in a barrel with June flowering Clematis ‘The President’, but against the wall it has the dark viticella Clematis ‘Romantika’ as its companion. Either of them make fantastic partners.