Pruning, care and maintenance plan for your roses, starring Mottisfont Abbey

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…

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…

Roses at Petersham Nurseries – a little video blog

Two short videos featuring the roses within the Cutting Garden at Petersham Nurseries - Abraham Darby, The Alnwick Rose, Constance Spry, Veilchenblau, Boscobel, Eden Rose/Pierre de Ronsard, Reine des Violettes, Paul's Scarlet, Gertrude Jekyll, A Shropshire Lad, Falstaff, Rosa banksiae ... These last two are of the umbrella-frame-trained Rosa multiflora Platyphylla, or Seven Sisters. The…

A floral & fragrant tour of Petersham Nurseries – Roses of course, plenty of perennials, a Cutting Garden …. a real taste of summer –

A warm bright day and summer feels like it has arrived at Petersham Nurseries - well honestly it is June already. There are roses everywhere, big fat bright buds and blowsy blooms - and the scents! Old Rose and Spice (even a touch of Old Spice), vanilla and clove, fruit (citrus and peach, mango and…

Rose Heaven – The New Season at Petersham Nurseries

    La Belle Sultane Rosa Mundi Kazanlik Honorine de Brabant Madame Isaac Pereire Souvenir de la Malmaison Variegata di Bologna Blanc double de Coubert Hansa Peach Grootendorst Rosa rugosa Alba Schneezwerg Emporeur du Maroc Ferdinand Pichard Hugh Dickson Reine des Violettes Nur Mahal Bengal Beauty Cramoisi Superieur Louis XIV Perle D'Or Gruss an Aachen…

Paradise is a Rose Garden – Mottisfont Abbey

The Rose Gardens at Mottisfont Abbey The gardens at Mottisfont Abbey are a year-round attraction. However, during June, when their unrivalled collection of Old-fashioned roses fills two (well, almost three) walled gardens with scent and dazzle the eyes with colour. It is an unforgettable experience. These roses have a historical importance beyond their beauty. They…

Another good day for the roses – good, but wet…

The roses at Petersham are giving up their treasures with new blooms every day - Old Roses with impeccable credentials and the new Aristocracy, courtesy of David Austin. Even on such a wet, nay traditional Bank Holiday Monday - there was fragrance too. No more can I ask...