RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2021
Have you had a chance to visit the RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival this year? We have and it was amazing – after the long break caused by the pandemic …. gardens, people, flowers… all in one place! Finally!
The Show Gardens, Global Impact Gardens, the No Dig Garden, the new RHS Allotment area – so many things to see and talk about. And of course the Floral Marquee and the Festival of Roses. We love all flowers, especially flowers for cottage gardens, with their unassuming beauty and subtle charm. But roses … well, roses are roses, aren’t they?
David Austin Roses, as always, has a great display – this year its ‘Rainbow of Roses’ symbolizes hope and positive feelings for the future after difficult times. All the flower colours and shapes are to be admired, but our favourite is probably ‘Port Sunlight’ – beautiful yellow / apricot colour and a seductive scent too. On the other hand, one cannot just dismiss the never-ending beauty of fragrant ‘Gertrude Jekyll’!
It just shows how difficult it is to choose the one you would like in your garden. Large fragrant climbing roses … standard roses … maybe an English rose? SeeHow can help a bit with this task. We have six varieties included - Rosa ‘Claire Austin’, Rosa ‘Darcey Bussell’, Rosa ‘Glauca’, Rosa ‘Graham Thomas’, Rosa ‘Lady of Shalott’ (great to see it at the David Austin stand this year), Rosa ‘Roseraie de l’Hay’.
This year’s visit to the roses stands at Hampton Court brought back memories of our visits there years ago. In 2012 we had a chance to talk to the well- known rosarian Michael Marriott (from David Austin Roses at that time), who spent time convincing us that growing roses was not difficult at all. Actually, when he described how to plant a rose, it did seem quite easy … “The most important thing is to choose the right variety and prepare the soil. Then you just need to water it and prune it” Then he said, ”I think that no other flower brings the gardener so much satisfaction, blooms so beautifully, and for so long … all summer”. Well, as a world-renowned rose expert, he knew what he was saying. So, just follow his advice, choose the right variety and … well you know what to do next!
One request – let us know which are your favourite varieties of roses and which one you would like to see in SeeHow.
The above Text and all Photographs are copyright of Wincenty (Wicek) Sosna. Please contact SeeHow for permission to reproduce in any way, in part or as the complete text.