With over 30 years of working with roses I must have designed thousands of rose gardens and borders from tiny ones holding just a few roses to full blown gardens with several thousand. They range from very formal to very informal, some purely roses others mixed in with other plants. And they are spread around the globe, many of course in the UK but also very many in Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia. Many are done purely by correspondence but if necessary I can arrange a site visit which becomes more important as the size of the garden increases. Initially I would need dimensions and a sketch plan of the area along with, if possible, photographs. If you have any particular likes or dislikes then you need to tell me as well any ideas you might have of how you want the finished result to look like.
Notable public garden where I have drawn up designs or been asked for advice on variety choice are Queen Mary’s Rose Garden, London, RHS Wisley, RHS Hyde Hall, Cholmondeley Castle, The Alnwick Garden, Bodnant Garden, Easton Walled garden, Hampton Court Palace, Kew Gardens, Powys Castle, Trentham Gardens, Wollerton Old Hall, Wynyard Hall all in the UK. Out of the UK – Abbaye de Morienval and Chateau de Rivau in France; Princess Grace Rose Garden in Monaco; Rosen Park Dräger in Germany; Mondorf-les-Bains in Luxembourg; Quando Fioriranno le Rose, Assisi in Italy; New York Botanical Garden and Portland Rose Garden in the USA; The Millennium Forest, Tokachi and the David Austin Roses garden near Osaka in Japan; Gwangju City Hall Rose garden and Gyeongju Expo Rose garden in South Korea. In addition many very large private gardens around the world.
Designing is only part of creating a successful a beautiful rose garden. Making sure the soil preparation is correct, laying out the areas for each variety, marking the position of each rose and planting it is also crucial. On all of these matters I will be happy to advise and if necessary make a site visit.
Queen Mary’s Rose Garden, Regents Park, London
Michael Marriott 