Rose gardens

Although sweet peas have dominated my growing over the last fifty years, and abutilons more recently, roses were always my first love. It started when I was a schoolboy in Norfolk and had an after school and holiday job working in the local rose nurseries. But, until now, I've never had the room for a proper rose garden of my own. When we first viewed this house I looked at the one third acre of grass paddock and whispered 'rose garden' to Mrs L. Today we made a much anticipated visit to the David Austin Rose Gardens to get some inspiration. It is regarded as one of the finest in the world and absolutely lived up to its billing. Much more planning to be done before I get my spade in the ground but I think we now know our colour scheme and have some design ideas.