Projects

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond.

The old rose garden was very much in the old style with large circular beds filled with one variety many of which were well past their best. As it is a World Heritage Site any changes had to be based on something from the past and so chose quite an ornate design from when it was a collection of North American shrubs. I filled the beds with about 2000 roses and around 200 different varieties all of them shrub roses ranging from species roses to the most up to date. The majority are repeat flowering but a significant proportion are once flowering varieties some of which set hips in the autumn. The garden has been a great success with flowers from May through to October and November and hips lasting through the winter.

English Rose ‘Port Sunlight’ at Kew Rose Garden – ‘Port Sunlight’ has a bold contemporary coloring that provides a charming contrast to its classic pure Tea fragrance. ‘ Port Sunlight’ is repeat-flowering. It features slightly quartered rosettes, a rich apricot color plus bronzy red stems and leaves in early season that darken later to deep green. Awarded RHS “Award of Garden Merit.” (David Austin 2007, Auslofty).

Wynyard Hall Rose Garden

The rose garden at Wynyard Hall (www.wynyardhall.co.uk) is set in a 4 acre/1.6Ha walled garden which had not been used for many years. The garden designer Alistair Baldwin was asked to come up with a master plan and I advised on the choice of roses. The layout takes inspiration from the historic evolution of the walled garden, from the strict geometric order of Persian grids, through the raised beds of the traditional English kitchen garden, to the babbling rills of the Moorish gardens of paradise. It is a wonderful mix of over 3000 roses – shrubs, both repeat and once flowering, and climbers and ramblers some trained up obelisks others against the high walls. They are mixed in with perennials the final effect being superb

Queen Mary’s Rose Garden, Regents Park, London

The roses in this garden are separated into two very different styles of planting: the very formal beds with just one variety and the much more informal borders which I have been working on over the past 10 years or so. They include the English Roses border, Cafe border, Police Box border, College border and New Lodge border.

David Austin Roses Garden Sennan City, Japan

The new David Austin Roses nursery was opened in xxxx and, as in the UK, there is a large rose garden associated with it which I designed. The garden is the same size covering about 1.5 acres/0.6Ha and was already divided into nine different areas of roughly equal size so the challenge was to come up with different designs for each of the areas. Two are relatively formal with many arches and obelisks and the rest are relatively informal some with large areas of grass for relaxing on. One of the beds was designed in collaboration with NHK and includes a large pond and roses planted with perennials. The growth of the roses has been very rapid and within two years looked very well established. It has been a great success.

Mondorf-Les-Bains, Luxembourg

Mondorf-les-Bains is well known for its spa and park which covers about 50 Ha. In 2013 I was asked to redesign the 4 acre/1.6 Ha rose garden within the park. It is on a slope with various paths snaking up through it to the cafe at the top. There is a very wide range of roses including Species roses, Old Roses and English Roses as well as many climbers and ramblers growing on arches and pergolas. The roses are planted with perennials which were chosen by the garden designer Alexandra Jansen. It was planted in 2014 and has now has matured extremely well and is very popular with all visitors.

Bodnant Garden, North Wales

Snow Goose - David Austin Rambler Rose — Snow Goose at Bodnant Garden. Credit David Austin Roses and Howard Rice

Roses are scattered around much of Bodnant but there are many in the upper and lower terraces both of which I have redesigned in the last ten years.

The upper terrace is made up of a series of rectangular beds each planted with a single variety and nearly all being English Roses. Around the outside it is rather more informal with a mix of roses and perennials.

The planting in the lower terrace is more informal, all the beds being a mix of roses and perennials. At either end are wooden pergolas with the very distinctive trellis work up which roses are trained.

Bodnant unamed HR14A8364 — Lower Rose terrace Credit David Austin Roses and Howard Rice.

climbing-roses-at-bodnant-credit-david-austin-roses-howard-rice The rambler Francis E Lester at the entrance to Bodnant. Credit David Austin Roses and Howard Rice.

the-rose-terraces-at-bodnant-credit-david-austin-roses-howar-rice — Upper Rose Terrace at Bodnant. Credit David Austin Roses and Howard Rice.