A little whinge

Everyone remarks on how I never complain. Chris often remarks on what a tolerant driver I am, and that I never shout at the television screen. [Editor: Aren't you thinking of someone else?]

But occasionally I do get vexed. Just a little...

With a few garden vouchers yet unspent I went along to a local garden centre. 

Why am I annoyed? Well, with a few rather rare exceptions, roses have no nectar . They simply do not have nectariferous glands. How, pray, are honey bees expected to make honey from these plants?

Even, in those few exceptional cases where a rose does produce nectar, it will be a species rose with single flowers. By a species rose I mean one which is in its natural form rather than garden roses, which are almost invariably complex hybrids.

Like many modern 'garden centres', the one in question is fairly typical in that much, if not most, of the floor space is given up to toys, furniture, books, jams and cakes, fabrics, footwear, crockery, pets and indeed little else. Are the managers chosen on the basis of their horticultural knowledge or their retailing expertise? 

The question needs no answer.