Five of the best: rose gardens
Discover five of the best gardens to admire the beauty of roses.
David Austin Roses
The 200-plus roses bred by the late David Austin are on show at this rose garden within a rose nursery, at Albrighton in eastern Shropshire. It’s hard to believe now, but Austin’s roses were initially a hard sell; considered old-fashioned in comparison to the scentless formality of the hybrid teas. Fashion caught up and romantic gardeners embraced his soft, scented, multi-petalled blooms. A garden of these outstanding roses is hard to beat!(David Austin Roses is now in the care of David Austin, jnr, and his son Richard.)
Sissinghurst
The old walls of Sissinghurst, in Kent, are smothered with roses, honeysuckle and clematis; and in the rose garden itself Vita Sackville West’s much-loved old roses and hybrid musk roses meet clematis, bulbs, perennials and sweet peas trained up rustic supports. But it’s the white garden, with its combination of white flowers and silver and green foliage plants and its dazzling central arbour of white Rosa mulliganii, that has captured gardener’s hearts - and inspired a million copies.
Giverny
Claude Monet’s garden an hour north of Paris might be most famous for its waterlilies, but it’s roses that dominate the Clos Normande in front of the house. In June the fragrance is dreamy as roses smother the great arbours of the Grand Allee with blooms and pillars of roses lend structure to the parallel flower beds, which flower in ever-changing tones from spring through summer and autumn. Monet lived at Giverny for 43 years and considered his gardens his true works of art.
Roserie de L’Hay
In 1892 Jules Graveraux commissioned the landscape architect Edouard Andre to lay out a garden of his 1600 roses; the first garden dedicated exclusively to roses. The garden reached peak capacity in 1910 with 8000 roses. It’s now a 4-acre garden within a large public park in the southern suburbs of Paris,beautifully laid out in a pattern of beds, walks, arbours, tunnels and ornamental trellis work, with climbing roses growing along swags, over pergolas and up pillars.
Broughton Hall
Roses bloom in the borders, climb over pergolas and arches, spiral up pillars and lounge along swags in The Garden at Broughton Hall at Jindivick, in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range, 100km east of Melbourne. The hedges that protect the garden from wind also hold in the fragrance of hundreds of roses, many of them David Austins. Co-owner David Musker is a nurseryman and garden designer and he has a great eye for planting combinations for his roses.
Come with us
All of these gardens are on our itineraries. Call 1300 233 200 for details.
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Date: 13 November 2019 Author: Sandra Ross
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