The Magic of Rose Buds
Each year, just as the new season’s roses are appearing, I set out to take pictures of rose buds for the readers who love them (you know who you are). I never do as well as I hope.
It isn’t good to be too critical of your own photography, so I’m offering these up as part of my latest series of posts on roses. Continue reading “The Magic of Rose Buds”
Wordless Wednesday: Bee on a Rose
Rosa ‘Tranquillity’ After Dusk
“You live a normal life and it’s quite difficult to realise that this normal life is coming to an end.”
–Â Man in Ukraine, BBC interview, 24th February 2022
From Bud to Bloom to Hip: How a Wild Rose Sets Seed

Continue reading “From Bud to Bloom to Hip: How a Wild Rose Sets Seed”
In The Pink
Rose Bedeguar Gall (Robin’s Pin Cushion)
Some rose diseases are so easily spread and devastating that I have a horror of them (rose rosette disease or crown gall of roses, for example). On seeing these mossy galls, despite the overactive alarm message, ‘Do not touch!’ flashing at the forefront of my mind, I did get close enough to take pictures. I vaguely remembered what these fuzzy growths were but needed to look them up to be sure.
I need not have been so alarmed: Rose bedeguar gall, known as Robin’s pin cushion or mossy rose gall, is neither a disease nor as harmful to the rose as might appear. Continue reading “Rose Bedeguar Gall (Robin’s Pin Cushion)”