A hideaway among the roses
This is one of the few car-parks where we want to take a morning mug of coffee knowing we'll be quite secluded.
The front garden is designed to give us plenty of parking but with a seating area cut off from visitors by a sea of yellow.
Gravel and block paving is softened by walls smothered with roses on the sunny side and flushes of pyracantha berries on the rest.
A narrow border on one side makes an eye-watering introduction to our home. It’s fired by long-flowering reds and pinks: hardy diascias, Mexican Salvias, Penstemon and the too-perfect-to-be-real flower parcels of Abutilon Megapotamicum. Pink roses, blue irises and finally the purple wands of Salvia Amistad ensure it is never less than spectacular.
A separate area set in a curve is a Laburnum-crowned yellow bed. Evergreen shrubs such as Elaeagnus, Hypericum Hidcote and Tree Peony set the backdrop with Ligularia, Crocosmia, Rudbeckia, Trollius and Helianthus planted around them.
Golden Gates rose – a wall of soft yellow
Get the look...
Golden Gates rose was sold to us as ‘the best rose you’ll ever own.’ And it wasn’t undersold. It happily clambers all over a huge brick wall, travelling metres in each direction and three meters up. It flowers profusely with open lemon yellow blooms from May to October.
For a shorter but even more eye-watering burst, Albertine cloaks another five meters of the wall but flowers its pink heart out in June.
Hypericum Hidcote delivers a staggering blast of buttery yellow, while Rudbeckia Triloba waits till late summer and then pumps out black-eyed-susan flowers until October.
Pink performance from late-May to October comes from the tall Diascia Hopleys and Mexican Salvias such as: Newby Hall, Royal Bumble and Watermelon with Amistad adding wands of perfect purple until the frosts.
Best months - Performance through the year
Coronilla Variagata
Coronilla Variagata
Wallflower Ruston Royal
Libertia
Laburnum
Albertine Rose
Geranium Palmatum
Rudbeckia Triloba
Helianthus Lemon Queen
Abutelon Megapotanicum
Pyracantha Orange Glow
Elaeagnus Maculata
The plants that make it distinctive
Top 10 Plants
Top plants – when they flower – what they bring to the garden
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And more...
| Helianthus Lemon Queen |
| Salvia Newby Hall |
| Rudbeckia Laciniata |
| Yellow Kniphofia |
| Trollius |
| Yellow Tree Peony |
| Rosa Korresia |
| Hypericum Hidcote |
| Helianthus Scabra |
| Yellow Potentilla |
Coronilla Variagata |
Mottisfont Abbey
If roses smothering old garden walls evokes the spirit of time-honoured British gardening, then its heart is at Mottisfont Abbey.
We had a gracefully curved brick wall in a virgin garden space and we wanted to cover the walls and fill the garden quickly to create a secluded seating area.
For us, the classic views from Mottisfont are of old seats tucked away in a profusion of plants and backed by an immaculately climbing rose. The view here is typical. Some rose gardens can be sterile, at Mottisfont roses dominate but there’s a full supporting cast of shrubs and perennials.
With Albertine and Golden Gates covering our walls, we have a small tribute to this glorious garden. See Top 10 Roses