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| Rosa 'Crown Princess Margareta' |
As the roses are starting to emerge, a little late in our garden this year but perhaps that's because many of them were only planted in the autumn and so they are still establishing, I thought it would be a good time to show you around the rose garden. My husband in particular is extremely fond of formal roses gardens and I love the vast number of beautiful roses available, so when he suggested putting in a rose garden I didn't need any convincing.
The rose garden is small, about 7.5 x 5.5 m (24 x 18 ft) It can be accessed through an arch off the patio or on the opposite side through an arch from the wild garden (at some point I'll do a post on the layout of the whole garden so that everything is a bit clearer).
The rose garden comprises: the white bed, the birthday bed, the red bed, the flame bed, and the camellia bed.
The white bed is planted with Desdemona, Pascali and Polar Star roses, with Calluna silver spring in front, allium summer drummer behind, and various white and white-green tulips. We're also going to add some lavender between the rose groupings as there's still quite a bit of bare soil.
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| Rosa 'Polar Star' |
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| Rosa 'Pascali' |
The birthday bed is so named because it is planted with the 'birth flower' of everyone in our family (including roses for a June birthday). It is technically also the pink bed, as the roses in it are pink. There is a holly tree in the corner (December birthdays) and that sparked the inspiration. It also has the arbour which is just the perfect spot to sit in and enjoy the roses. There's a grape vine which we planted this year growing up one side, and I think we might put in a jasmine on the other to enjoy the incredible scent. In the other corner of this bed is a crab apple, Malus 'Rosehip' which sets large red apples similar in appearance to rosehips so I couldn't resist adding it. This year is so full of apples I've had to double stake it as its trunk is still young and quite flexible.
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| The birthday bed and arbour |
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| Malus 'Rosehip' |
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| Rosa 'Daughter in a million' |
The red bed, unsurprisingly is red roses. Four specimen hybrid teas: (R-L) Alec's Red, Ingrid Bergman, Black Baccara and Deep Secret. These four aren't look quite as happy as the rest of the rose garden but it is the only bed which hasn't been properly mulched. There is also Crown Princess Margareta climbing over the arch (this takes you into the wild garden, the arch onto the patio has Warm Welcome growing on it), and Ghislaine de Feligonde on the trellises behind. Erica Darleyensis white perfection is planted at the front, and clematis Shimmer growing up behind on the trellis. There were some white alliums in this bed but they haven't grown well and the white gets lost so we may plant some lavender or nepeta here and possibly some delphiniums as well.
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| The red bed not looking very red |
The camellia bed faces almost north and so although there are roses that can do well in shade, it was an opportunity to add some interest to this area of the garden outside of the rose season and maximise shade planting, of which there isn't much in our garden. We have three camellias, hellebores, astrantia, Japanese painted ferms, vinca minor 'Gertrude Jekyll' and clematis koreana 'Broughton Bride'. clematis viticella 'Supercute' and hydrangea seemannii in there, as well as a morello cherry, primroses and hyacinths. I'm planning to add Solomon's Seal and bleeding heart in there as well in the autumn. More to follow on this when I do another post about our other shady spots.
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The camellia bed
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| Hydrangea seemannii about to flower |
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| Astrantia 'Miss Elly' |
Last but not least, the flame bed. Planted with three varieties of 'hot' coloured roses: Hot Chocolate, Absolutely Fabulous and Super Trouper. We saw Super Trouper at Hever Castle and knew we had to include it although it's incredible orange is not for the faint hearted! In the middle is a yellow standard 'Flower Carpet Gold' and we have just added blue scabious, agapanthus 'Charlotte', nepeta 'Kit Kat', verbena bonarienis (we had loads of seedlings from this in the front garden) and dahlia 'Cafe au lait supreme' which won't necessarily stay there but it needed a home for this year.
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| The flame bed |
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| Rosa 'Hot Chocolate' and scabious |
I am so pleased with how it has all come together, and impatient as ever for things to fill out and mature, and there are still empty trellises to fill with climbers (housing sweetpeas this year) but it really is a joy to sit in the arbour with a cup of tea. I find the formality of rose gardens very relaxing, perhaps because generally speaking roses are unfussy and just get on with growing and flowering.
I hope you enjoyed the little tour and the photos, and I'll update as the garden progresses.
Happy gardening.
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| Rosa 'Warm Welcome' |
Happy gardening.
Heather
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