This is what I call the Den Rose in all its glory. It was planted by some of our predecessors on the Boggy Brae to climb up the Den (they might have called it the Sun Room). The Den had rotted by the time we moved onto the Boggy Brae and eventually we had a whole new structure built onto the original low base walls, one of which was extended along the edge of the southeast terrace and, at one time apparently, had had a lovely piece of mahogany as a ‘lid’ on the double brick wall. We never saw the mahogany.
Once the Den was rebuilt I guided the very vigorous growth of the Den Rose sideways and along the wall extension, with the above result.
Last year the Den roof needed repairs so I cut back the rose severely but, by this time, one or two of its shoots had rooted themselves at the bottom of the wall extension. I trimmed these back too and was looking forward to their flourishing this summer. Unfortunately the roe deer who think Boggy Brae garden belongs to them seemed to think I had trimmed the rose for their benefit so that new young shoots presented themselves at the top of the wall for their exclusive delectation.
Last evening Toad told me to come and look at the pair of deer who were eating “green stuff” growing out of the wall! Toad is not a gardener and could be described as what the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland call “plant blind”. At any rate he had clearly forgotten about the glory of the Den Rose and didn’t recognise it. He just thought it was sweet of the deer to be so close and nibbling it 🙄
My point of view is that one can go off deer 😂
So, early this morning I devised an anti-deer-nibbling device over the top of the wall’s rose shoots.
