Rich as a fig broken open ...

    "... soft as a ripened peach, flecked as an apricot, coral as a pomegranate, bloomy as a bunch of grapes."

    Vita Sackville-West on her favourite varieties of old-fashioned rose, as quoted by Sarah Raven in Vita Sackville-West's Sissinghurst: The Creation of a Garden.

    This article explains the pruning and training techniques used at Sissinghurst and lists some of the varieties Vita loved.