A commentary on what’s happening in the world of roses

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Pat Austin’s ‘Three Graces’ photo by Priscilla Wardlow

One of the charming features of the gardens at the David Austin Nursery, Albrighton, UK is Pat Austin’s (his wife) sculpture. Spotted throughout the garden her carvings act as exclamation points among the roses!

Lady amongst ‘Chianti’

Pat passed away about a year ago but her influence is still felt in the garden. And the garden wouldn’t be the same without her sculpture.

Lion in the new Walled Garden

Gardens change but statuary remain the same. Here the Lion is placed in the newly planted Walled Garden. The roses have just been planted and later this fall perennials will be planted amongst the roses and in a few years this garden will mature into a spectacular display throughout the seasons!

In the Renaissance Garden

A pair of Pat’s creations placed at the end of the long access in the Renaissance Garden. This garden is an icon of David’s garden with clusters of English Roses planted close with boxwood hedges and grass paths.

A close up of one of the two carvings at the end of the reflecting pool in the Renaissance Garden

The Renaissance Garden in bloom

The Family Rosa

Pat’s sculptures are a reminder of this lady’s contributions to her husband and their long relationship.

‘Pat Austin’, artist, wife, mother, garden presence

The Renaissance Garden, David Austin Nursery, Wolverhampton, UK
Photo: Priscilla Wardlow

This unusual three sided Postcard tells the tale of the life of a seedling rose from hybridization to field testing. Photos taken at the David Austin nursery in Wolverhampton, UK.

Each white strip of paper represents a cross and each hip produced might produce up to 40 seeds! This is Hope in the future!

This truck load is rejected seedlings that didn’t make the cut for one reason or another. Rejection!

The evaluation fields where seedlings that have made the cut are planted out for up to six years. Some will make the next cut and many will not. Evaluation.

‘Albéric Barbier’ on the Rose Arbor in the Victorian Rose Garden at Warwick Castle, UK

The Sign Marking the Driveway to The Manor House, Upton Grey

Every once in a while you experience one of those mysterious magical moments and our visit to Rosamund Wallinger’s garden in Upton Grey was one of those. Never mind that it was a wonderfully sunny day (we only had two days of rain in our entire 13 days in England) and that the garden was at its absolute peak, this was different. I had contacted Ros early on when planning this trip and since she had spoken some years back at The Huntington on the restoration of her 1908 Gertrude Jekyll garden I wanted visiting this garden to be a priority.

Clair and Ros out in the Garden

I knew Ros would be occupied as this was the height of the garden season and she often books several coachloads of visitors daily. Ros met us in the garden and gave us an overview, then suggested we wander the gardens and take time to photograph. Almost as an afterthought as she walked away to start the preparations for the tea for coach guests, she hollered over her shoulder “did we want to have tea with her in the garden?” Now how do you turn that down? So we wandered off photographing everything we could and eventually worked our way back to the garden terrace of the house where she had set tea.

Tea Under the Umbrellas

Sipping tea from china cups and discussing roses and Jekyll while looking out over the sunken garden filled with pink peonies and roses with Ros and another guest, Hans a photographer from Denmark, was a truly magical horticultural moment! Discussing plant selection and restoring her garden from scratch, remember this garden was nearly abandoned when Ros and her husband purchased the property nearly 25 years ago. Every now and then I felt the urge to pinch myself to make sure I was really awake!

Ros’ three black labs

No matter how fun just sitting there and discussing high horticultural subjects could be, the garden beckoned. There was the double herbaceous border, the nuttery, the formal gardens and tennis lawn, and of course the Wild Garden yet to explore. The house and garden had received in the year before recognition as one of the Best Homes and Gardens from the National Garden Scheme.

Ros has had the advantage of discovering the extensive lists of plantings kept by Jekyll and has stuck to the this to retain the feel of the garden as it was back when Jekyll first planted it in 1908.

The Double Herbaceous Border

The Sunken Garden

The Pond in the Wild Garden

This is one of the only remaining Jekyll Wild Gardens remaining in the UK. Ros spent many hours clearing the jungle of brambles and weed trees that had taken over this space in the years of neglect. Because of this, it is still a work in progress. Many of the trees will need years to mature but it is still worth the time it takes to walk the mown grass paths. The low ridge along one side of this garden is reputed to be the remains of a Roman Road.

The Front Facade and Car Park

The Greenhouse Border

Our visit almost over, we bumped into Ros once again and she invited us into her kitchen for a lunch of bread and cheese. Munching on fresh bread and a selection of cheeses we finished our visit to Ros’ garden while she busied herself preparing the tea for her coach guests later that afternoon. Ros’ husband walked in just back from a walk with the labs and toed off his wellies and fed the dogs, the picture of an English country gentleman. I could have spent the whole day in that kitchen talking of roses and gardens with Ros and died happy!

Truly magical moments may only exist in fairytales but this was one of those fairytale days! Sitting there with Ros I felt I had arrived. Often over the years I have felt that I was the new kid (horticulturally) on the block and for once I felt I was an adult and brought something worthy to the table for a change.

‘Rosa Mundi’ in Mottisfont Abby Garden

Quoted from the Sign in Mottisfont Abby Walled Rose Garden:

“The ‘Fair Rosamund’, Rosamund Clifford, was the mistress of Henry II, and the love of his life.

Although the story of Queen Eleanor murdering her rival at Woodstock is probably untrue, when Henry heard of her death in the nunnery of Godstow, he declared that his lovely form of the Gallica rose should ever after be called ‘Rosa Mundi’ - a name sometimes given to Rosamund by her contemporaries at Court - “Beauty of the World.”

Tomorrow we depart London for home and so we decided to take some time to explore our neighborhood, Kensington and see what it had to offer. Just down the High Street is Kensington Place one of the Historic Royal Palaces and the former home of Princes Diana. We spent the late morning touring the Palace and viewing the State Rooms from the time of William and Mary, Queen Ann, and George I.

William III in Front of Kensington Palace

After the Palace tour we walked through the park towards a large brick structure with large windows we discovered to be The Orangery. There were tables outside set for lunch so we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at The Orangery at Kensington Palace. The inside space was open and lit by the bright summer sun, yesterday was the Summer Solstice. The high room’s south wall was broken by huge white framed windows that reached up nearly twenty feet to let in a wonderful light.

The Dining Room

We ordered Carpaccio with rocket, parmesan and white truffle dressing and a cheese plate with blue brie and glasses of a fantastic Spanish rose. Lunch amid the light and soaring white space was an unbelievable experience. Of course we had to top it off with a perfect dessert! We ordered the Raspberry Meringue. The meringue was light as air and sugar can be with a carmel base and had a creamy center with a mixture of raspberries and currents. I couldn’t wait to take a bite before photographing this!

Afterward, we took a slow walk through the park surrounding the Palace back towards Kensington High Street and the Albert Memorial discovering a sunken garden along the way.

Kensington Palace Park was chock-a-block with Londoners out to enjoy this second day of summer with their dogs and children, music concerts and even a political protest near the Iranian Embassy near where Kensington and Hyde Park join.

Prince Albert on High

What a wonderful, magical way to end our day!

We visited Hidcote Manor Garden on our one truly rainy day. It was a light English rain…not cold just a shower…but wet.

White foxgloves and the Manor House

It was a magical visit to a place I had wanted to see for years! Strolling through the garden rooms Larwence Johnston designed over his long life at Hidcote was a true horticultural experience not to be missed. Finding the garden was made much easier with our GPS unit in the car but navigating the English country roads was a bit unsettling. But we managed.

The Long Walk

The roses were just coming into bloom and the garden seemed to be on the cusp of summer.

The Rose Walk

Hidcote was our only full day of rain and even that wasn’t too bad. The drive through the country side was one charming village after another. You just wanted to stop every mile and take pictures of every house but you couldn’t invade the locals privacy.

Another view of the Rose Walk

English Countryside as seen from Hidcote Manor Gardens

One of the two walled rose gardens at Mottisfont

Clearly mid to late June is the time for the old roses at Mottisfont! The roses were out with abandon and so were the visitors. There were almost as many cars in the car park as there are rose bushes in the garden. Mottisfont is on the south coast of England near Southampton and a wonderful site for this national collection.

Tricolore de Flandre

The original walled kitchen garden was replanted with Graham Thomas’ collection of old garden roses and perennials in the 1970s and over the years the gardeners have extended the collection into an adjacent walled orchard.

The beds and walls are planted with a profusion that boggles the mind and senses! It takes close examination just to spy some bare earth.

David Stone and Clair

David Stone the Head Gardener gave us an introductory tour of the property and walled gardens. David admitted that the success of the garden is also a bit of a problem in that the crowds of visitors are hard on the gardens but the public support is needed to help maintain the gardens. It’s one of those “if you build it they will come and wear out the lawns” kind of things.

Mottisfont Abbey Gardens is a National Trust property and over the years the Trust has been strapped for funds to maintain many of the out of the way gardens and historic properties they taken under their protection. But clearly Mottisfont, at least in June and July, have become a destination for the British gardening public and a pilgrimage I will make again and again.

Chloris