But there must be other things that I haven't thought of, so any suggestions
you can make would be most welcome. Clearly they should be things
that are not
an enormous amount of trouble otherwise I shall be back where I started.

When I used to have an allotment, I used to grow a mixed row of HT
roses there, just for cutting.

Janet.

Thank you for the suggestion Janet but roses just don't like it here. We have
very light sandy soil - ideal for working, of course (in fact, I was out
digging it over yesterday despite all of the rain) - and by mid-summer the
roses look terrible with hardly a leaf in sight due to black spot.

So I now grow them as a shrub in a mixed border so that we get the early blooms
and it doesn't show when they are reduced to bare stalks!

Derek