A beautiful antique rose.

On the other side of the porch climbing up supports between two bedroom windows is one of the classic antique roses, Zephirine Drouhin, the most fragrant in our garden. It has a succession of cerise-pink blooms with double petals throughout the growing season.

Thornless stems makes it a joy to prune, and its lavish flower display and easy cultivation, growing well as it does in our well-drained light soil, gives me yet more reasons to cherish it. As I like the idea of companion planting, I have, growing up the supports alongside it to complement its colour, a deep wine velvet clematis, called Niobe, and the later-flowering yellow clematis, Tangutica.

On glorious days in Summer, the heady, sweet scent of Zephirine Drouhin wafts in the open bedroom window and fills the air with its intoxicating perfume. Wishing to share its scent whenever we are entertaining family and friends in the garden, I always take them to where it grows so that they, too, can smell its overwhelming Bourbon fragrance.