Rose ‘Ena Harkness’ This beautiful rose was already climbing up the front wall of our house when we moved here. She must have been growing there for many years, for in the ground next to her I found the original and very old metal plant label engraved with her name.

Ena was not in a good way though, so I gave her a hard prune and have fed her with generous amounts of well-rotted manure every few months. My reward has been a single perfect bloom produced almost consecutively over the last two years, whatever the season. She smells divine, sweet but with lemon overtones, and her petals look as if they may have been fashioned from the deepest crimson velvet.