Roses are as evocative of a British summer as strawberries and cream. It’s easy to see why the rose remains the nation’s favorite flower – for beauty and scent it’s hard to beat. We work hard to preserve and maintain the rose gardens in our care. Here are a few of our favorites.
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge
You can’t miss the heady scent coming from this quintessentially English rose garden. There are 40 beds in the garden, each planted with a different variety of rose. With over 1000 bushes in total you’ll experience a riot of scent and color.
Barrington Court, Somerset
Barrington Court’s main rose garden was replanted in the 1990s following Gertrude Jekyll’s original scheme, and this winter the plants were replaced once again. There are still plenty of roses to see in other parts of the garden during May and June though, while the new planting becomes established.
Bodnant Garden, Conwy
Walk along Bodnant’s terrace in mid-summer and you’ll find yourself surrounded by over 1,500 rose blooms. Enjoy sweeping views of the Carneddau mountains while you take in the soft colour and fragrance of the flowers.
Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire
Clumber’s rose garden includes over 40 varieties, all introduced before the 1920s. Most have a beautiful scent, which is trapped by the walls of the kitchen garden so you can really breathe it in as you walk into the garden. The borders are planted in red, white and blue which are the colours of the Newcastle family. The roses are combined with bulbs, annuals and herbaceous perennials to provide interest from spring to autumn.
Compton Castle, Devon
The rose garden is in full bloom at this time of year, with a huge variety of show-stopping roses such as Parkdirektor Riggers. A walk through an archway in the castle wall leads to a set of steps up to the garden, where roses climb over arbours, bloom in the borders, and fill the air with beautiful fragrance.
Dunham Massey, Cheshire
The rose garden at Dunham Massey is full of colour and scent in June as over a thousand roses start to bloom. There are 300 different varieties, including Rosa Stamford’s Sanctuary, named after Dunham’s role as a First World War hospital. Most are repeat-flowering so produce a continuous display over the summer months thanks to the work of the gardeners and volunteers who spend over 75 hours each week looking after them.
Greys Court, Oxfordshire
June at Greys Court is all about the roses. See them climbing up the stonework of the mansion and winding around the bandstand, or take a walk in the walled garden to see one of the oldest varieties of roses, Rosamundi, blushing with showy pink blooms. You can even trace the history of roses here, from early damask varieties through to the modern hybrid perennials.
