At the gates of an abandoned factory, I kept noticing a rambling rose which every year, for about 5 weeks, would be covered in huge falling clusters of creamy white pompom flowers with a hint of pink blush. No one tended or watered the rambler but it still would fiercely bloom every year.

I took a cutting a few years back and now this old rose - called Félicité-Perpétue – flourishes in my garden.

Félicité-Perpétue dates back to 1827 when Antoine A. Jacques, the head gardener to France’s Duc d’Orleans, introduced it at Chateau
Neuilly. Almost two centuries later this historic rose can be found in gardens throughout the world, and even still growing on crumbling walls of old ruins.

The white roses are mixed here with pink and orange roses, orange Hibiscus, blue, purple and white Batchelor Buttons, spires of blue Salvia, blue and white Love-in-a-Mist, the seed head nests of Wild Carrots, as well as fragrant Honeysuckle.