On a recent trip to the Essex coast, I couldn’t but help notice this gorgeous rose-Rosa rugosa ‘Scabrosa’ (kindly identified for me by the lovely people at Peter Beales Roses) in somebody’s front garden, used for fragrant hedging-and what a wonderful hedge! Checking out Rosa rugosa (without the Scabrosa, but still with gorgeous pink flowers) on the Peter Beales website, revealed its true versatility. As a single flowerer, this rose is very attractive to bees and wildlife (Carol Klein talked about the importance of growing single flowered plants only this Friday on Gardeners World, in order to feed our declining bee population), is highly scented, very disease resistant, will grow on any soil, can take some shade, flowers all summer long (unlike many other wild roses which come and go all too swiftly), has gorgeous pink blooms and large red hips…..what’s not to love about this fabulous rose. (Height 4ft x Spread 6ft)
Other sightings which made me want to up sticks and move to the seaside were this combination of Rose, Valerian and undulating picket fence,
Valerian again in all it’s coloured varieties,
this show stopper of a front garden, filled with Roses, Valerian, yellow Sisyrinchium, Foxgloves and Allium,
and its sister border, with Allium, my favourite Gladiolus byzantinus and plenty of Sisyrinchium again.
It’s great to see and understand what plants flourish in growing conditions-light soil, salt, windy and a very open aspect- which are so different, in fact almost opposite to my garden in London-heavy clay and an enclosed (some might say overly packed together), protected environment.
As a veg grower (and eater), I was delighted to stumble upon fields of peas growing as far as the eye could see. A shorter variety than I grow, planted close together, so that staking isn’t an issue.
And finally, it was great to see Samphire (Salicornia europaea) doing its own thing on the beach-a delicacy only available to buy in posh fish shops in London!
p.s. Great advice on how to grow your own Samphire at Victoriana Nursery
Out of my shed 
Wow, I love the purple border – so vivid!
I’ve tried growing samphire a couple of times but I never could keep it alive for very long…
gorgeous! what an inspiring post,
and I can almost breath in the fresh air – lovely pics xx
saw the range off Valerian in Somerset – pink and coral – very pretty – in East Lambton
Border planting – very interesting thank you
Great blog. I LOVE the photos. The colours of the one with the fence and roses!
gorgeous borders…and I love the idea about the peas…something i can definitely do…
Glad to see someone enjoying Essex. Its not all like that programme!
There is so much samphire around here. I trample all over it when fishing the marshes. When I saw how much it fetches in London I couldn’t believe it. Nearly packed up my job and started dealing the stuff there and then!
Jono, always enjoy your comments-have you caught many fish recently as you’ve been trampling over the Essex samphire?V.best Naomi
What a lovely post – as an (almost) seaside gardener, I’m always looking for things to put with my valerian, and that sisyrichum could be the answer… I didn’t know you could grow your own samphire – I must investigate!
Hi Kate-do let me know how you get on with growing Samphire! Sissyrinchium is a great plant to grow-evergreen grey sword like leaves as well as the yellow flowers in summer and it self seeds like crazy-I always have a couple of spare plants in pots to share with friends and family. V.best Naomi
[…] June, July and August, fragrant choices abound from Roses (which flowered well in to December last year too!), Lillies, mock orange-Phildelphus and star […]
[…] last time I sojourned on the East Anglian coast was in West Mersea in Essex last June, and I was interested to see which plants would be flowering later in the year as summer […]
Sisyrichum Is a beautiful flower but sadly it spreads like a fire
True, but it can easily be pulled up and gently dug up and given away!