Flowers are an essential part of an allotment. I treat them just like any other harvest. They grow in rows with paths between for easy access. The vegetables and fruit from the plot is tasty and satisying to eat but the flowers and in particular the roses feed my soul.

I have to work for the display, plenty of feed: manure in early winter and granular rose feed in early spring and this is the reward.

Gertrude Jekyl
Chandos beauty – has to be her best disply
Fragrant cloud in forground and Lady Mitchell behind Chandos beauty. Gertrude to the left needs dead-heading after her first flush.