The Simple Vegan

I have been warned off old roses by alot of people. They are prone to disease,

I am told, tempermental and touchy, scarcely worth the trouble. Old roses have character, and romance lingering in their pasts. They are like faded old beauties of Victorian and Edwardian country houses.

I love their names and their rarity and the paper- frail too.... I doubt if I shall ever be able to achieve the old rose garden I dream of, but I shall make a start.... Belle de crecy, duchesse d angouleme, felicite, parmentier, madame Hardy, wife of bath, Mousseline, old pink moss, all of them will have a place.... Albertine, of course. If there were only one rose in the world I should want to be it to be Albertine, that glorious cascade of pinkest pink. If I had a very high wall, I should like it tumbling over every inch of it.

Susan Hill

From " The Magic Apple Tree"