IN the village where I grew up, all the cottages grew the same pink rambling rose against their walls. Blowsy, prickly and very sweet scented, my grandmother told me that its name was ‘Albertine’, a Wichurana Rambler introduced in France in 1921, the year my father was born.
But why did everyone grow the same variety? The answer is because it was so easy to propagate: stuff 10 cuttings into the soil in autumn and, two years later, you have 10 flourishing rambling roses. Cuttings passed willingly between neighbours until everyone had a specimen
