Sending out a warm welcome to old and new readers. Hello to new readers from the garden clubs where I’ve given talks recently. At both Nether Heyford and Spratton this week there were questions on what to grow for colour in the garden in June. When I got home I had a quick look through my photo album and found some of my favourite summer flowers. Above is my 1930s summerhouse which stands on a circular turntable and can be swung round to face the sun all day long. In the folding glass doors you can see a reflection of the trees, hedgerows and fields behind our garden. Above the doors, I often place a wreath of fresh flowers and in this photo it’s a selection of roses from the garden.

Constance Spry grows over the entrance to a 60ft pergola. It was one of the first David Austin roses, introduced in 1961. It only flowers once, but the display is so stunning it is worth growing. The myrrh-like scent is fabulous, and reminiscent of fruit salad, ripe melons and pears. It grows to 6m so needs a strong archway or trellis support.

I picked the flowers at dusk when the scent was particularly strong. In the basket there’s also Mme Isaac Pereire (1841) a fuchsia pink climber which grows alongside Constance Spry. And Rose de Rescht (1840) a compact floribunda shrub rose. Both repeat flower all summer.

The wreath is made from 4” lengths of ivy from the hedgerow and white elderflower heads. With the doors open, the breeze wafts the scent of roses and elderflower inside. A rather lovely place to sit and make plans for the garden. The black and white cat is called Grace who came to us from the RSPCA. She was handed in with a box full of kittens. The only kind thing the person did was take her somewhere where she would be cared for, and for the rest of her life she snoozed peacefully here. The summerhouse was a favourite place. Sadly she has now passed away and is still sleeping in the woodland behind the little house.

Growing into a mature beech tree is rampant rambling rose Cerise Bouquet. I never tied the plant in, it simply hooked itself up through the branches and produced huge sprays of cascading stems. Even the most severe storms can’t dislodge it. Sadly it has no scent, but it is a wonderful sight in June and then repeat flowers on a more modest level right through to November. Being a rambler, it is disease free and no trouble. I never prune it, or feed it. It just grows! The Cornus Controversa ‘wedding cake’ tree in front was very badly affected by the 30C temperatures last summer and has lost some of its tiers. I think this winter we will bite the bullet and cut it down by half to see if it regenerates from lower down. It was planted 25 years ago, and is quite slow growing. I was quite upset by the number of plants that succumbed to the heat, but now I’ve come to terms with it. Gardens aren’t static, they change and we have to sometimes let go of much-loved plants. It’s never easy, is it.

One rose that seems to shrug off everything the weather throws at it is this lovely white variety, Pearl Drift. I grew this from a cutting I took on holiday one year. I nearly always come back from holiday with a memento of where we’ve been -always asking permission before taking my cutting, of course! I have a lovely pink flowering American Pillar taken from a rose which grows along a fence in front of a pretty cottage in Sandsend near Whitby.

Growing under the roses are many different geraniums. This one is the wild cranesbill, Geranium pratense. It seeds about the garden, originally blowing in from the country lane outside our garden gate.

As you can see, there’s plenty of cow parsley on the lane too. And I must admit that 50 percent of the garden is covered in cow parsley in spring. I’m not complaining. It’s rather lovely to have the garden echoing what’s going on outside the garden gate.

There’s plenty of room for ornamentals too. In the front garden, lining the path to the front door, there’s gorgeously-scented Mrs Sinkins pinks.

I always pop a few stems in amongst my jam jar flower posies for my mum. As you can see, cow parsley gets picked too, with white love-in-a-mist, wallflowers and alliums.

Thank you for joining me for my reminisces of June flowers. And for a wander down our country lane. I hope the photos have given you some ideas what to grow for summer colour. Do please sign up for e mail updates and follow the blog. It’s been rather lovely looking through my photo album as the temperature suddenly dips to zero here! We’ve had three nights of frost now, and it’s all change in the garden as trees turn golden and tender plants are tucked up in the greenhouse. Are you all ready for the cold? Do please leave a comment in the box below. Let me know what your highlights were this summer and how your garden is looking right now on the cusp of winter weather.