June and July are the best times to get out and enjoy the roses in bloom in gardens across the UK and we’ve picked out ten of our favourite rose gardens to visit. There’s no better place to discover the sights and scents of roses and be inspired to grow some at home than in a garden with a fantastic collection of these stunning flowering shrubs.
This stunning English manor garden in the heart of the Northamptonshire countryside is awash with roses, with the Rose Garden, Rose Bank and Rose Walk. Many other roses are incorporated into the colour-scheme borders for which the garden is particularly famous; the flamingos are another telling theme.
Coton Manor, Northampton NN6 8RQ. Tel: 01604 740219; cotonmanor.co.uk
Borde Hill Garden is a stunning garden in all seasons, set in 200 acres of listed parkland and woodland, but roses are the centrepiece of the formal gardens close to the house. A rose garden, the Jay Robin Rose Garden, named after the owners’ daughters Elenie and Andrewjohn Stephenson Clarke, was designed by RHS gold medalist Robin Williams in 1995. Over 100 varieties of David Austin roses are complemented by delphiniums, peonies and phlox. More roses arrived in 2011 when Tony Lord designed the Midsummer Border, combining roses in shades of orange, red and yellow with perennials.
Borde Hill, Borde Hill Lane, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 1XP. Tel: 01444 450326; bordehill.co.uk
Garden designer Lady Xa Tollemache created a new rose garden for her house in 1982, with a few densely planted species in a restrained palette. Beautiful and inspiring, the rose beds are bordered with lavender, marjoram and nepeta. All beautifully complement the impressive Tudor moated hall.
Helmingham Hall, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 6EF. Tel: 01473 890799; helmingham.com
The walled garden at Mottisfont was designed by Graham Stuart Thomas and is home to the world-famous National Collection of pre-1900 antique roses, with 500 varieties of roses to enjoy.
Mottisfont, near Romsey, Hampshire SO51 0LP. Tel: 01794 340757; nationaltrust.org.uk/mottisfont
The Royal Horticultural Society’s Rosemoor Gardens in North Devon feature two outstanding rose gardens. The Queen Mother’s Rose Garden features roses arranged in a coloured circle, and is dominated by 100 modern hybrid tea and Floribunda varieties. In contrast, the Bush Rose Garden has a simple cottage-style design and contains over 200 varieties.
RHS Garden Rosemoor, Great Torrington, Devon EX38 8PH. Tel: 01805 624067; rhs.org.uk
Former football club owner Sir John Hall’s long-cherished dream came true when he transformed the walled garden at Wynyard Hall in County Durham into a stunning new rose garden in 2015. The 2.5-acre walled garden is now filled with a wide range of roses – some 3,000 individual bushes and 135 different cultivars – combined with perennials and grasses in a groundbreaking design by landscape architect Alistair Baldwin.
Wynyard Hall, Tees Valley TS22 5NF. Tel: 01740 644811; wynyardhall.co.uk
The Hever Rose Garden is famous for its 4,000 or so rose bushes, which create a spectacular display, their fragrance amplified by the surrounding walls. They are planted in masses of colour, from pale pink to deep red, with stunning apricot and yellow tones, and unusual purples. Climbers such as ‘Climbing Iceberg’ and ‘Albertine’ are trained on pillars and stone gazebos, forming focal points of the garden. Discover head gardener Neil Miller’s tips on caring for your roses in summer.
Hever Castle, Hever, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 7NG. Tel: 01732 865224; hevercastle.co.uk
The Rose Labryinth, boasting over 200 varieties of roses, is one of several themed gardens in the historic Walled Garden at Coughton Court. Quite relaxed in style, designer Christina Williams used narrow cobbled paths, pinnacles and canopied benches to create structure. An informal mix of roses, ancient and modern, shrubs and climbers grow around these. Explore our feature on the gardens.
Coughton Court, Warwickshire B49 5JA. Tel: 01789 762 435; hostoncourt.co.uk
The rose garden here was designed by Andrew Wilson and Gavin McWilliam and opened in 2010. The rose beds lie below and surround a walkway leading up to the center of the space, which resembles an observatory.
Savill Gardens, Egham, Surrey TW20 0UU. theroyallandscape.co.uk
In 2009, the Rose Garden at Ragley was officially relaunched after three years of development to create a more modern and contemporary layout. Expect bold combinations of roses with herbaceous perennials, such as the pink David Austin rose ‘Cariad’ with its purple spires. Sage ‘Carradonna’, or pale pink rose ‘Alan Titchmarsh’ with silvery-blue flowers Eryngium ‘Big Blue Fish’.
Ragley Building, Alcester, Warwickshire B49 5NJ. ragley.co.uk
