Gardening in early June
We hacked down our very tall climbing rose and it’s desperate to reach the heavens again, but we shall keep it short. It has a bud on it, which will produce a pink rose. I don’t know the name of it, but call it 'Jack and the Beanstalk.'
I worked around, removing flowers growing in the wrong place – weeds to the uninitiated! – and pulling out the last straggling forget-me-nots. Raspberries and strawberries are ripening, but there’s no colour on the blueberries. The cherries have been collected, the plums and apples, apricots and damsons are promising, while the poor pears struggle along but rarely deliver.
I admired the tiny white flowers on the goosegrass (Galium aparine) as I pulled it up. It tries so hard, and spreads everywhere. It is also known as cleavers, sticky willy, catchweed, sweetheart, bedstraw, and robin-run-the-hedge. I’ve always known it as goosegrass or cleavers. It’s a favoured food for geese and chickens, hence its common name of goosegrass.
The plant, which belongs in the same family as coffee, is more interesting than it first appears. It can be cooked as a vegetable before the fruits ripen, but is not so appetising if eaten raw, because of the little hooks that cover the leaves and stems. The burrs which follow the flowers hold two or three seeds. They also have hooks which attach to passing animals or humans, thus being easily distributed. The fruits have often been used as a coffee substitute and contain less caffeine than coffee beans. The leaves can be dried and used to make tea, and the roots produce a red dye.
As a bedstraw, it was used to stuff mattresses.
In Ancient Greece shepherds made sieves from the stems of cleavers to strain milk, a practice that was also followed in Sweden.
Having plucked out much of the plant, and knowing there will be more later, I left the garden, but not before looking at some more roses. Somehow, they’ve all managed to hide away.
‘Warm Welcome’ is a semi-evergreen climbing rose. It’s sweetly scented and a vibrant orange-red.
Growing near it is a deep pink old Bourbon rose, 'Zéphirine Drouhin’, which has a rich, intoxicating scent and very few thorns.
The Generous Gardener
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
The final one is a pink David Austin climbing rose called ‘The Generous Gardener’, which has a strong, sweet fragrance. It was named to mark the 75th anniversary of the National Garden Scheme.
The National Garden Scheme was founded in 1927 to make private gardens accessible to the public. For the privilege of visiting a splendid garden, visitors pay an entrance fee which goes to a variety of charities, including Macmillan Cancer Support, Hospice UK and Parkinsons UK. In 2025, donations amounted to nearly £3.9 million.
Anyone can open their garden for charity, and the gardens may be anything from a community allotment to a cottage garden, from rolling acres to wildlife havens, from seaside to town.
I know someone who opens her garden for one or two days each year. It’s a lot of work, but so worthwhile. It is not something I shall ever do, however.
