There are very many different kinds of rose from different parts of the world, the number of species alone runs to three figures, and the crosses and hybrids are countless. The ranges of variation include colour, growth habit, size, scent, and numbers or degree of thorns. Some are numerous and fine, almost like fur, while others have fewer but much bigger thorns that are hard and vicious. One variety has no thorns at all, which in fact, although it was raised as long ago as 1868, makes it a still popular and widely grown variety.
It is `Zephirine Drouhin’ and you should be able to find it in catalogues under the headings ‘climbers’ or ‘Bourbons’. It is a climber that will get up to 10ft (3m) high if allowed or, as is usually the case, will make the same length diverted over a pergola, fence, pillar or similar support.
To do this, the first and therefore the most important requirement is adequate moisture. Nutrients have to be in solution before a plant can absorb them, that is the first priorty. Second, even without leaves, a living plant is evaporating moisture - that is part of its living process - and it has to he replaced, through that part of the plant that does the absorbing, and which, by the sound of it, has not been very active. New foliage and bloom increases the evaporation rate, and the demand on the roots is therefore greater - what precautions did you take before planting to make sure they would be able to do their job? Did you simply dig a hole and plonk the plant in it?
If you really want to give your roses a fair deal, you will have to chance the risk in lifting them during the dormant period next winter and planting them again, properly this time. Otherwise, by the time anything you do from the soil surface can get down and affect the roots, it is doubtful if they will still be around.
The plant in question here is Limnanthes douglasii, commonly known as the poached egg plant, and so called because of the fanciful similarity of the colours of each little flower to those of a poached egg. An annual that in favourable conditions readily seeds itself each year, the bright yellow and white flowers, attractive in themselves, are more likely to start a fight with roses than to blend with them. However, the flowers are particularly attractive to hover flies, the larvae of which have a voracious appetite for aphids.
The number of gardeners who report wholesale clearance of greenfly by this method is such as to suggest that greenfly control can be guaranteed. Perhaps you will find this plant association more acceptable than underplanting.
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