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On my allotment, last year's swift summer runaway early-potato success has been a mildewy disappointment this year, however 'Lady Crystal' a
relative newcomer has been brilliant giving me huge crops of waxy, yellow spuds that have been delicious chipped, boiled and baked. It just goes to prove the old adage 'don't put your eggs in one basket' or for the gardener, your faith in one variety of potato!

I've high hopes for my fruit trees too. I'm pretty sure it'll be a good year for fruit as the spiky-stemmed Firethorns (pyracantha) that adorn so many factory fences and municipal roundabouts have been festooned with flowers - soon to be followed by red and Belisha-beacon orange berries. I figure that if they do well so will their edible distant relatives the apples, plums and pears.

Talking of plants in the rose family - I've fallen in love with roses in a big way this year. I can't keep my eyes out of the rose catalogues or my nose away from the scented blooms. Like the pyracantha they're brilliant this year and I noticed this morning on the school run how well the old favourites like rosy crimson 'American Pillar' and pearly-white 'Alberic Barbier' that scramble over the fences are doing. I'm planting a rose on Friday night's GW at Greenacre. It's one with the most exquisite spicy scent called 'Strawberry Hill' and it has 'full' pink flowers that are packed with fragrant petals. Heavy-headed roses like this one do best in dry years as the rain shatters the blooms and sends the petals flying. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more sunshine and hunting through the rose catalogues for a single-flowered climber to hedge my bets.

I have lots of tried and tested favourites from disease resistant but tender 'Banksii Lutea' that scrambles up my crab apple to the visciously thorned but wonderful Mermaid. Do you have any you'd reccomend that you think deserve a place in the Nations new backgarden?