Rubus rosifolius 'Coronarious'
Plant lust can make a gardener quite mad. In the early days of Alice's Garden, I would read about an unusual specimen in a gardening magazine and simply have to have it. The photo - scanned from a slide - illustrates a particularly spiny... or let's just say a painfully bristly, barbed relative of the genus Rosa: A Rubus species grown for its fluffy white multi-petaled blooms.
As mentioned, the beauty of Rubus rosifolius 'Coronarious' had been highly touted in-print by a beloved and renowned writer/plantsman. And I did swoon when the glowing flowers of this humble yet elegant long-blooming bramble appeared along the back fence in my secret garden.
Yet after a time I decided to remove it.
Plants come and plants go in the life of any garden, and certainly in the small space I cultivate in Northern California. I often look fondly upon this beauty when perusing my collection of 35 mm garden slides, recalling my tussles with its canes, as well as the excitement of observing the way the flowers would light up an out-of-the-way spot in the garden, alongside a narrow pathway.
Do you grow R. r. 'Coronarious' ... or another ornamental bramble?
Clash of the Wee Ones ... A Weigela and a Geum!
Son of famed plantsman, Alan Bloom,and author of numerous gardening books featuring Foggy Bottom, Adrian Bloom's personal 6-acre garden in Norfolk, Bloom shared his thoughts on the Blooms of Bressingham borders at Kendall-Jackson Winery. Here: a long view of the garden on a recent summer's day, with bees abuzz, flitting among the bountiful blooms.
To find the borders, amble from the formal parterre garden fronting the main chateau, and continue around the side of the building. A signpost heralds the Blooms of Bressingham garden, where drifts of plants meld together in what Bloom calls "macro and micro views."
Reflecting Bloom's refined gardening style, the garden plan revolves upon artful combinations of conifers, flowering perennials, ornamental grasses and shrubs. The tall, vertical shapes of evergreen Italian cypresses draw the eye, and as Bloom shared, "give you a bit of structure... whichever way you're looking.. on either side of the pathway to take the eye through," calling attention to the surrounding plant combinations.
Geranium blooms weave through hydrangeas; salvias and feathery silver-filigree artemisias are backed by dark Cotinus foliage and butterfly-attracting buddleias. 
