After spending a day at David Austin Roses soaking in all the colours and inhaling the amazing scents how could anyone failed to be impressed and not want at least one in your own garden. Choosing a repeat flowering variety with scent means that there will be colour in the garden throughout the summer from just one plant. Having poured over catalogues for years (no matter how good the photographs are) you can’t beat being able to see the range of colours up close and personal and to stick your nose into each rose and choose your favourite scent(s).

Roses in a range of colours
© Camilla Grayley

It was also great to see the different ways in which roses could be incorporated into gardens or planting schemes, whether to plant a formal rose garden, place them behind formal box hedging or mix them up with complementary perennials or annuals. Nepetas, Salvias and Geraniums worked really well with deep red/pink, pale creamy/white or orange roses or annuals such as the pinks and whites of Cosmos, pale blue of Nigella, Phacelia or purple and white of Hesperis (sweet rocket). Having seen rugosa roses used  as a hedge it was great seeing other varieties of roses that could be used instead such as the white flowers with the yellow centres of Kew Gardens or the pink of Harlow Carr or Hyde Hall.

Being able to smell the different types of scent – myrrh, musk, fruity, tea and old rose and decide which ones I liked and wanted in my own garden. Do you want one that wafts through air, to enjoy while sitting out on a summer’s evening, if so then the musk scented roses are the ones to choose from.

And then there is the type of rose that you want – a climber or a rambler, one of each intertwined (if space allows) looks even better, the wall or pergola will be covered with small flowers mixed in with larger scented blooms. English roses are not repeat flowering but have amazing scents if there is space for one or two, or for repeat flowering choose shrub roses or a Portland rose such as the crimson of Rosa de Rescht that has amazing scent and repeat flowers, the choices and combinations are endless. And yes I did bring several home, some new climbers (Lady of the Lake) to scramble over the fence and a few others to squeeze into the garden (the new Desdemona and another Munstead wood, I already have two and wanted a third).