Although I ordered most of my bare-rooted plants weeks ago, new thoughts and ideas for myself and clients mean that there are more plants to order. So having done my last day of gardening work for this year, I can sit down and spend time perusing catalogues and websites again-a very pleasurable activity. I’ve plumped for Rosa ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ for a client wants a rose to grow up a tree and although not arriving for a few weeks yet, I could make the most of the promised mild days ahead to start preparing the ground for this scented beauty. The nice people at Peter Beales were happy, as ever, to give good advice about planting a rose near a tree. Try and plant at least 3 feet or more from the base of the tree to avoid competition from the tree roots and prepare the ground very well with loads of organic matter-home compost and well-rotted manure would be ideal. When planting, point the rose towards the tree and use a bamboo cane or rope to train the rose towards the tree. Next, wrap rope in a coil up the trunk to keep the rose stems as horizontal as possible as this will encourage the most flowers. Keep an eye on growth next year and tie stems in as they grow, as once the rose shoots up horizontally, it will be impossible to retrain without lopping off new growth. Paul’s Himalayan Musk is a Rambler, which means (unlike a Climber) that I shall have to wait a year before I see any flowers, as roses are formed on old wood. But I’ve chosen this variety as it’s a vigorous plant which will tough it out on poor soils and put up with a bit of shade, so with plenty of watering and judicious feeding, I will be rewarded with a wonderful skyward display in 18 months time!!
I’ve also just planted this wild rose (Rosa rugosa) as hedging in a neighbour’s front garden and hopefully will see the fruits of my labour this coming summer. There’s still plenty of time to order bare-rooted roses: Toby Buckland’s Nursery offers 10 well-selected cultivars, very reasonably priced wild rose hedging can be ordered from Victoriana Nursery and an abundance of roses can be easily selected on the very user-friendly Peter Beales website
On the fruit side, I’ve just ordered some ‘Joan J’ raspberries (from Ken Muir) to test alongside recently purchased ‘Polka’ canes and my ‘Autumn Bliss’ patch, for what I think is the best tasting variety.
And sweet, juicy Japanese Wineberries can be planted to fill the gap between your summer fruiting and autumn fruiting raspberries. Available bare-rooted from Victoriana Nursery, and Ken Muir.
And finally, I’ve been digging up Jerusalem Artichokes to eat for weeks now, but saving a few to replant in order to double my growing area for more of this delicious veg next year. The less knobbly Fuseau variety of tubers can be bought from Marshalls and can be planted from now until March.
Out of my shed 
I’m interested in the results of your raspberry taste test – I find ‘Autumn Bliss’ hard to beat for both flavour and cropping 🙂
Hi VP-this autumn ‘Joan J’ came top in the Gardening Which? raspberry taste trials, so I thought I would give it a try, and Wellywoman said she wished all her raspberries were Polka rather than Autumn Bliss-could just be a matter of taste, but I like to experiment and will let you know come September what I discover! V.best Naomi
The farmer’s market near me regularly have jerusalem artichokes on sale, I’ve seen them in supermarkets too, probably Waitrose, so no need to pay postage for transporting a heavy package.
Thanks Jo-Great money saving idea, and you get to choose your own tubers too.
I shall look forward to your taste test. My Autumn Bliss are still coming out of the freezer and after de-frosting taste like just picked so it might be worth doing a freezer test too.
Hi Sue, Feeling a bit jealous that I don’t have any raspberries in my freezer. Will definitely do a freezer taste test next year too.
Did your japanese wineberries suffer this year from the lack of rain? I had a try of some really weedy looking ones at a garden this summer and I wasn’t impressed. I have heard lots of people recommending them so I wondered whether they had suffered from lack of water.
Hi Wellywoman-I’ve found my Japanese Wineberries to be very independent growers, putting up with complete lack of care from me. I’ve not watered them this year at all, but they produced huge amounts of delicious fruits for weeks. Took me a few goes to really become addicted to the berries, but now they rarely make it home, being eaten directly from the bush. I do think they are wonderful fruits and have given plants that I’ve easily propagated from my original plant to anyone who will take one, hopefully spreading the word. The fruits are a lot smaller than most raspberries, but make up for size by intensity of flavour and their arching pink stems are a stunning sight to behold at the allotment too. I also highly recommend them!