Another excellent themed puzzle by Virgilius - four colours with in many cases linked clues.

Solving time: 16 mins

* = anagram

ACROSS

1 ROSE BUSH Very good

5 JAFFA First letters

10/11/12 LILY WHITE MEAT

15 UNCL(e) AD barely = naked

17 U in CIRCS

19 S (succeeded) AWING

22 NILE GREEN BELT

28 SUSIE (Issue)*

29 DESSERTS Fools = gooseberry, apple fool etc.

DOWN

4 SEE THE D

7 A VESTA

13 BLACK HOLE You can’t get out of it

18 SURETY Hidden

20 SNAKES (and ladders) - game cf ADDERS

21 ST AS IS

22 B ESS

Solving time approx 20 mins.

A couple of new words for me (see title) - I hope Shed gets well soon! Otherwise fairly straightforward but I made no more than steady progress.

Across
1 MER(CU)RY - should have been an easy start but took me a long time to think of.
5 COST,I’VE - I don’t like this - setter’s in the surface reading is short for “setter is”, but the wordplay requires it to be “setter has”.
11 P(LAG,IA = “A1 gal” rev)RISM
12 EMBR(Y)O - Y in ORB,ME rev. - interesting that he’s a compiler here but a setter in 5ac!
13 BA(NALIT=Latin*)Y - I’m surprised this wasn’t linked with 28ac.
14 SCHINDLER (Children’s*) - ref. Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Kenneally or Schindler’s List, the Spielberg film based on it.
17 S(ain)T,ASH - a stash of saint-ash! You can probably buy it on eBay…
23 T(EAR DR)OP - I liked “EAR DR” for otologist.
24 NIS(S)AN - nisan is the 1st month of the Jewish calendar. I knew that, but it still took me ages to get this even though I drive one!
26 UMB(ERTOEC = “to Cree”*)O - boss=stud=umbo is common in crosswords. An umbo is the round knob at the centre of a shield. Author of The Name of the Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum etc.
28 P(LATIN)G - (GP rev)
29 RA(VIOL)I - last one I got. RAI is Algerian rock music.

Down
4 RI(PC,OR)D - free = RID is the first thing I think of, although it can also be an anagrind.
6 O(RIEN)T - nice to see ORIENT not defined as “east” for a change.
9 WAMBLE-CROPPED (crew blamed pop)* - I had most of the checking letters in place before working this out, but once I saw CROPPED it couldn’t be anything else.
15 INS(sin*),URGENT
22 T(R)ITO,N
25 SOL(T)I - I guess soli is the plural of solo.