Gardener and Photographer with a love of Roses and a magpie-eye for all things Horticultural
June 2018 visiting Mottisfont with a fellow rose-lover. A day of laughter and fun. Overblown, blowsy, beautiful, fragrant, lush, a little ragged, absolutely in need of some serious dead-heading - but equally glamorous and hopelessly romantic, there are no rose gardens quite like Mottisfont. Soulful, they inhabit the walled gardens of this ancient priory, clambering…
Continue reading ➞ Mottisfont Rose Gardens, June 2018
There have been some changes at Mottisfont in Hampshire. A new garden has been created and there is a new-ish visitor centre. But these notes and images are more about the practicalities of growing Old Roses, with detail from winter and spring. For those wishing to delve deeper into the art and science of rose…
Continue reading ➞ Pruning, care and maintenance plan for your roses, starring Mottisfont Abbey
The beautiful collection of Old Roses at Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire - displayed in three separate walled gardens, each with its own distinct character and altogether showcasing several hundred Old Roses varieties with a range of complimentary plants. And the fragrance! Be still my beating heart! Actually, there is a new garden there, that I…
Continue reading ➞ Pruning, care and maintenance plan for your roses, starring Mottisfont Abbey
Overblown, blowsy, beautiful, fragrant, lush, a little ragged, absolutely in need of some serious dead-heading - but equally glamorous and hopelessly romantic, there are no rose gardens quite like Mottisfont. Soulful, they inhabit the walled gardens of this ancient priory, clambering through the many venerable apple and pear tress, hopelessly constrained by box or lavender,…
Continue reading ➞ Mottisfont Rose Gardens
Set by the banks of the crystal River Test, cutting through the chalk downland, sits Mottisfont Priory, dating to the 13th Century and with a colourful history right up to the 20th Century with Maud and Gilbert Russell bringing life again to the old house and the National Trust subsequently taking the House and Gardens…
Between the rain showers yesterday, a tour around the two rose gardens at RHS Wisley - these are all from the first, the Jubilee Rose Garden, which features roses planted among roses and more roses (no herbaceous planting here, not allowed at all). The next gallery will feature the planting in the Bowes Lyon Rose…
A pilgrimage to these gardens, for which, so far as the roses are concerned, we have Graham Stuart Thomas to thank principally and for the last 40+ years, the National Trust for preserving and enhancing his original collection of Old Roses. Mottisfont holds the National Collection of Shrub Roses. I met Jonny Bass, the head…
Continue reading ➞ A return to Mottisfont Abbey; an Old Rose Pilgrimage
In the footsteps of a Master: Graham Stuart Thomas I've had the privilege of attending the Heritage Rose Foundation Conference in Winchester today, mixing with the great and the good of the Rose World, with folk from America, New Zealand, India and closer to home - Trevor White of the eponymous rose nursery for example.…
The River Test runs over chalk through the grounds of the ancient Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire. Crystal clear waters, live with fish and overhung with willow... stop for a minute and enjoy the birdsong. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mottisfont/
The Teddington Gardener 