My 91 year old neighbour has the most amazing rose gardens front and back, the rose bushes are 40 years old and are the old varieties with the most exquisite scents you have ever smelt. This has been accomplished since her husband died about 10 years ago and she employs two gardeners every week for half a day. They work like trojans for about three hours and treat the lawns weed the borders trim the bushes every single week, the results are fantastic and I will take some photos tomorrow, but last back end when the gardeners were cutting the roses right back, I saw them throwing away the cuttings. I said give them here if you are not doing anything with them and I took about 40 cuttings, prepared them for rooting and put them in potting compost over the winter in the greenhouse. Unfortunately having spend a total of 4 months away from home, I neglected to ask the wife to water them. Upon my return most had died but I managed to keep about 10 alive and with TLC and regular feeds and potting on I even managed flowers on 5 plants. As I said the scent is amazing and the roses themselves are colourful and quite attractive. I am hoping to do the same and keep more this year as you do not seem to be able to get hold of the old highly perfumed varieties these days.
Took a couple of snaps with my new phone
, I have plans for plants all year round for next year 
