A Perfect Identity Change

Published on by Catherine

First week of the school holidays and the weather’s been dreadful. I haven’t managed to get into the garden to do any work, and it’s been frustrating. But the winds have dropped now, and it all feels a little more hopeful that this cold front might move away before too long and I can pack my winter sweaters away again!

But enough complaining, there’s a new week ahead and it must be better. All I’m asking for is some summer sunshine. That can’t be too big an ask….can it? So here is this week’s Six on Saturday, photographed between bouts of rain, moments when the wind dropped and the clouds thinned a little. Some were even taken with gloves on.

Rosa ‘Winchester Cathedral’ is another rose retired by David Austin Roses. I’ve had it for years – it’s a repeat flowering shrub that produces large clusters of white flowers. There are occasional hints of pink on the petals but that doesn’t detract from its white loveliness. It has a nice perfume but needs warmth to bring it out.

Rosa ‘Winchester Catherdral’

Lupin ‘Melody’. This shorter variety of lupin (60cm) was bought as a bare root earlier this year. So far, there’s only been one flowering stem, and we’re looking at it now. I should have taken some cuttings in spring as the lupins in the borders have been a disaster this year. The colour of ‘Melody’ is described as being a dusky violet with a hint of pink but I find that the colour is slightly deeper than the advertising photos. As for the other lupins, the yellows have vanished and the slugs and snails have destroyed the appearance of others. This one is perfect in its pot where the tiny munchers haven’t discovered it…so far.

Lupinus ‘Melody’ growing in a pot

Rosa ‘Margaret Chessum‘. There’s not a lot I can say about this rose other than it produces masses of clusters of smaller flowers throughout the summer months. She’s been a resident here for many years and is very pretty.

Rosa ‘Margaret Chessum’

Rosa ‘Dame Judy Dench’. Dame Judy, with the most heavenly perfume, has arching stems and started life here in a pot. I moved her into the rose bed, where she’s not too happy and tends to turn her blooms away from me. I think I’ll move her again in late autumn/early winter and put her back in a pot where her heavy blooms and stems can drape over the pot sides. If she still wants to hide, I can turn her around for her portrait session.

Gorgeous ‘Dame Judy Dench’

Pretty little Violas. Planted in late winter the Violas were ten small plug plants, (five Viola cornuta ‘Tiger Eye Red’, and five Viola cornuta ‘Antique Shades’) that have created an amazing display over the past few months. They demand attention though, as they don’t like being dry and need regular feeding. I can’t help but wonder how long they will keep going.

  • Viola ‘Antique Shades’
  • ‘Tiger Eye Red’ and ‘Antique Shades’

My featured image at the top of this post has a little story attached to it. A good number of years ago, one of my daughters bought me three roses for my birthday. They are thornless roses with beautiful slender stems and delicate pink flowers, I adore them. Now, I knew that David Austin had changed the name of the rose that once was ‘Mortimer Sackler’ but I didn’t know what it had been changed to. Over the past two or three years when I’ve been looking for a new rose, I’ve often paused at ‘Mary Delany’, but it didn’t get onto the top of my list, only because I felt it was too similar to some I already had in the garden.

This week, Chloris, of The Blooming Garden posted the story about the change of name and it was then I realised that my previously named ‘Mortimer Sackler’ roses are now Rosa ‘Mary Delany’. I’m delighted to be able to finally give my roses a new identity and welcome ‘Mary Delany’ to my garden!

The full story of the name change is on Chloris’s blog. The story is fascinating – and the TV drama about the Sackler family is currently running on BBC iPlayer. Mary Delany’s story is also worth reading; in my opinion, David Austin made an inspired choice with the name change!

  • Meet ‘Mary Delany’
  • Sold as a climber…
  • …she grows as a shrub here
  • Beautiful, no thorns and perfume

If you want to learn more about Six on Saturday, see other people’s gardens or join in, you’ll find all the details on Jim’s website, Garden Ruminations.

This week I changed our broadband, energy, and mobile phone suppliers, and yesterday, the car insurance. The previous week we had a new boiler installed. It’s been super busy here and not without problems. This ‘superfast’ broadband is stuttering. Despite tests showing a healthy download speed, internet pages are loading slowly and mail is refusing to load images. I could blame the hardware but it happened the moment we switched providers and it’s across devices. I’ve spent too much time already trying to fix it, but the thought of trying to contact the broadband provider fills me with dread! I know, we’ve all been there… I’ll plod on for a while yet and try to fix it, but if you think I’m missing, I’ll just be here, pulling my hair and doing all the crazy things people do when technology goes wrong!

Have a lovely weekend and wherever you are, I hope the sun is shining brightly on your gardens.

Catherine 😃

29 thoughts on “A Perfect Identity Change”

    1. You’re welcome, I was happy to find the name change. Rosa Judy Dench is a beauty and the fragrance is perfect for my garden as it doesn’t need summer warmth to bring out the scent.

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  2. The ‘Antique Shades’ pansies are very pretty! Concerning the story of the change of name of the rose, it’s beautiful and it’s good to have this new name , especially because the rose is dear to you.
    And for broadband, I just did the same thing here in France and it works directly and perfectly…Call the operator, they need to fix this. It must be under warranty( ?)

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    1. Broadband providers in the UK are a law unto themselves & dealing with them is a very frustrating experience. I had issues when we changed provider so I totally understand Catherine’s dread:-(

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    2. My son has just popped in to drop off littlest grandson (we’re going out to a ‘Fun Day’ and he’s coming with us) and he’s suggested it could be an IOS/OSX problem as that’s a problem he’s had in the past when he changed to a new provider.

      It’s odd because all our devices are picking up speeds of around 500 Mbps but pages are so slow to loadi. It looks as though I’m going to have to make that frustrating call and ask for advice. My son had to have the settings changed by the internet provider to put it right.

      At least I now have a starting point.

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      1. Ah it’s possible. For me on iOS/iPhone everything is fine but on Mac/Google Chrome, the pages arrive very slowly and the photos too , even though the speed is about 1 Gbps

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        1. I’ve been out from just after my previous comment, Fred and when I got home I had a look online for clues about the slow/non loading pages and emails. I’m with Sky Broadband so went first to Sky Community. Many people have been having the same problem, so I followed instructions to make changes to my settings.

          I’ve had to individually change my phone, iPad and iMac settings, but so far the changes to the DNS Server seems to have solved the problem 🤞🏻but I’ll have to give it time and see what happens. Rather than explain the details I’m posting the link which anyone can have a look at if they have similar issues with OS and/or iOS devices.

          My Sky DNS server has been replaced with Google’s server and although this appears to be working for me it might not work for everyone.

          I’d advise anyone making changes to settings to log each step clearly in a notebook in case it’s necessary to backtrack.

          https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/Sky-broadband-not-working-on-iPhone/td-p/4200625

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          2. It must be a relief to have found the solution to such a frustrating problem. Without meaning to be patronising, well done you for finding the answer.

            As an IT techie by trade, I’m intrigued by this as the problem has clearly been around for a while, judging by the comments about it which date back at least a couple of years. I think it’s a poor show by Apple/Sky not to get this fixed between them, it really shouldn’t be that difficult.

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            1. Not patronising at all, Helen. I don’t feel it’s limited to Sky though, as my son’s new provider was Virgin and he had the same problem. His household consists of Apple and Android devices – the Apple devices loaded very slowly, all others were ok. His provider changed settings remotely, but it was then a compromise to find the spot that suited both types of devices. I wonder if the issue could be with Apple products alone?

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    1. I’m happy too – Mary Delany is a much nicer name and now that I know the story behind the previous name I really think I’d feel embarrassed to have it in the garden. We’ve had sun this afternoon, and 19C, a nice surprise. No gardening though as we’ve been out with littlest grandson. 😎

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  5. Such a beautiful six, I will enjoy reading the story of the name change later. I love lupins but the slimy ones have put me off growing them for years, perhaps I’ll try one in a pot as Melody is beautiful.
    I presume you’ve rebooted your router? If so, and that’s not fixed it, good luck with your broadband provider.

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    1. Thanks Helen. I’m wondering if there are more varieties related to Lupin ‘Melody’. I’d be happy to have a couple more, in different shades, growing in pots.

      Yes to the router question. I tried everything I could think of, but I think (hope) it’s finally fixed now (Google to the rescue!) My last reply to Fred explains it all. Pages are loading fast and so are emails! 😁

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  6. Thanks for your story of your rose Mary Delaney, nice to know why it was changed! Your Margaret Chessum is a very pretty rose and I also like Judy Dench too!

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    1. It’s a much nicer name and perfect for the rose. Once I decided to dispose of R. Margaret Chessum, Pauline. It was growing too big for its space and looking straggly. I cut it back to the ground, but I was going through a very busy period, and when I went back to it in early spring, it was starting to grow again. I moved it to another spot and it’s been growing there ever since.

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  7. Interesting story about the “Sackler” rose. Well renamed. Of course, we in the US think the Sackler family is the devil. I wish them ill for every child who has died because of them. They do not deserve to have anything named after them, especially a gorgeous rose like that one!

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    1. I can imagine the anger of the people in the US whose lives were destroyed by the greed of that family. I’m glad the rose was renamed.

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  8. I got side-tracked with Chloris’ blog on the name change of the rose. Very interesting – and a lovely rose. I often wonder why I didn’t pick ‘Dame Judy Dench’ when I was looking for an orange rose – although she sounds rather particular! Love the Lupin. We’re having issues with our new hoisted upon us phone and broadband provider TalkTalk (they recently took our previous provider) and they don’t seem to be able to answer questions or explain how they calculate a bill. Very frustrating.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Well, Graeme, if you ever want to buy another orange rose, remember ‘Dame Judy Dench’ – I think she’s worth the trouble. 😁 

      You have my sympathies. I was with TalkTalk many years ago and it was a dreadful experience. Months of complaining got us nowhere until one day I spotted an engineer working on the telephone box-thingy in our area. I asked him if he could help me understand what the problem could be with our constantly dropping internet. He listened, took my details and said he was just heading down to the exchange and to give him half-an-hour. 30 minutes later our internet was back online and stable from that point on. But as for bill problems, I can only wish you the very best of luck! 😉

      PS – I’ve fixed my slow-loading pages and empty emails!! I hope! 😂

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  9. Lovely roses and what a gorgeous Lupin! I have had a couple of lovely ones that never seem to last very long, but one of them sets seed every year and usually flowers behind a taller plant! LOL! The violas are really pretty – I have never seen any sold with names here. I hope your internet problems are solved sooner rather than later, and that you get some warm sunshine too Catherine.

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    1. Thanks, Cathy. Most online garden sites tend to sell named varieties of just about everything. How about Viola x wittrockiana ‘Frizzle Sizzle Burgundy’ F1 (I have my eye on that one!) or Viola x wittrockiana ‘Matrix Sangria’ F1. 😁 On one site there are 10 named varieties on sale at the moment. 

      I worked on the internet problem yesterday and it appears to be fixed, I’m hoping it remains like that. 🤞🏻

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  10. Wow, you ARE having a challenging week! The weather has been very strange here, too, but mainly erratic during a time of year that’s usually pretty stable for us. And we went from drought conditions last summer to flooding conditions this summer. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a normal weather year…or even a couple of seasons of “normal” weather? Your blooms and photos, as always, are stunning. Good luck with your Internet challenges!

    Beth@PlantPostings

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    1. Thank you, Beth. Changes in weather patterns are becoming a concern for many. We garden lovers only have our plants to worry about, when people elsewhere have their livelihoods affected by these erratic climate conditions. Yes, it would be nice to have a normal weather year and like you, I’d probably settle for a couple of good seasons!

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