Friday, June 24, 2011

The Rose Garden in Hyde Park, Part II

Today I want to continue my post about the Rose Garden in Hyde Park. If you have missed the first part click here and it will take you to my first post about this astonishing public rose garden. When my husband and I were exploring the Rose Garden in Hyde Park further we came to an area, where the climbing roses were trained in an interesting way. They had set tall wood poles into the ground in a circle with openings to walk through after every quarter of the circle. The poles were placed in a distance of a couple of feet from each other and were connected by metal chains, which were attached almost at the top of the poles. The chains were arching between the poles. At the base of each pole they had climbing roses planted, which first covered the wood pole itself and were then trained to grow horizontally along the chains in both directions towards the adjacent poles. Even though most roses did not yet, I think, the idea is that the roses will "meet" in the middle of the chains between the poles eventually.

(you can click on the photos to enlarge)


I have seen this kind of design in drawings in gardening books but never in real life and found it quite interesting. I have to admit though, that I think it works fine for a big public park like this one or a huge private garden, but for a relatively small urban garden like mine I feel the design is too dominating in its formality. I believe, you need a lot of space to give the design "room to breath", so that the poles and the chains do not become the dominant feature but the roses themselves and the surrounding vegetation like in the picture above, the tall trees, the yew hedges and the rose beds that were positioned in the center of the circle of climbing roses. But as so often it might just be a matter of personal preference and I think, that I personally simply like roses to be grown a little bit more natural and informal. But see and feel free to judge for yourself.



On the photo above you can see a close-up of one climbing rose on a pillar starting to climb along the metal chains.



I liked a lot that they have planted these spiky leaved yellow flowering plants at the bottom of the feet of each rose. And if you look closely you can see that they even planted another companion plant there, too. I have seen climbing roses planted on pillars with bare legs and I have to say I like this look much better.



View of different quarter of the circle of climbing roses. I feel, that on this photo you can get a better idea how big the circle is in reality. It is such a great thing if you have the space to play with roses. I appreciate so much that the Brits are willing to design such an extravagant rose garden feature with the high maintenance that comes with it and that it is worth spending the public money on something like this to them. In general on our vacation I got the impression that public gardens and parks are much more valued and appreciated in England than here in America, if the high quality of the design and the amount of maintenance that is put into them is any indication for the value of a park to the public. You often see actual professional gardeners working in these public parks, which I almost never do in the US.



Beautiful magenta red rose, which was growing in close proximity to the climbing rose circle.



Another amazing combination of colors. I just adore the pale apricot rose in the middle flanked by two magenta colored roses to the sides. Too bad that I do not know the names of them.



Close-up of the pale apricot rose from the photo above. Isn't the color just melting you away with its softness?




Look at the abundance of rose blooms. It is almost like you are swimming in an ocean of roses. They must take really good care of them to make them bloom in such a prolific way.



Then we moved on just to enter another stunning area with a wonderful fountain. I like that the Rose Garden in Hyde Park was divided into distinguished areas that were almost like seperate garden rooms. They were enclosed by shrubbery and trees so that the roses could show off against a wonderful green and lush canvas. It also had the effect that you as a visitor felt sheltered in a very intimate space rather than getting lost in the vastness of the park.


 

Close-up of the centerpiece statue of the fountain. The statues that we saw in England were so well done, they never failed to amaze me.




Walking further we came across another huge rose bed. I realized one more time that I prefer roses planted together with companion plants rather then planting them alone in masses in separate beds. I feel a bed like this is so much more interesting to look at in comparison to a plain rose bed.



I just love the airy combination of the yellow flowering companion plant together with the cerise blooms of this rose. The yellow flowering plant with spiky leaves was used quite a bit in the Rose Garden in Hyde Park. If you know the name of it, I would appreciate if you would take the time and leave a comment.



Another section of the Rose Garden with paths meandering through the lush rose beds. This part of the garden has such a dreamy romantic feel to it, you just want to get lost in all this beauty. Love the old fashioned lantern on the right side, by the way.



Looking a little bit closer at the tongue-shaped bed from the photo above. Here you can see very well the staggering of the roses in terms of height. This is so well done and thought through. I am wondering if the rose in the front could be 'The Fairy'. Whatever it is it so charming!



Another rose bed with a more bold combination of colors (red, blue, yellow, and white), which I rarely saw in the garden. Usually the combinations were more muted, which I mostly prefer, but if you have so much landscape to play with like they have in this park why not being a little bit more brave in the use of color? If everything would be pastel in such a vast garden it would probably get boring.



Yet another rose bed mainly composed with cerise and magenta colored roses and different colored companion plants, which provide nice and interesting contrasts.




Close- up of a rose that was planted in this area. Would love to know what variety it is.




The lilac color of this rose blew me away. So stunning! Another one that I would die to know the name of. Too bad that most roses were not labeled. It would be so cool to know what it was.



I love these two beds so much I just have to show them to you from a slightly different angle, again.



Our visit of the Rose Garden in Hyde Park, London was such a pleasure. Even my husband was fascinated by the way it was designed and by the beauty of the beds and the roses. If you ever have the chance to go, don't miss it.

See you in the garden!

Christina



14 comments:

  1. Oh my what a lovely, wonderful garden that is. Thank you for sharing it here.

    FlowerLady

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  2. What a beautiful place! This is why everyone dreams of an English garden. They have the art down perfectly. Absolutely gorgeous! You make me wish I could go there. And I want to thank you for posting those climbing roses on the chains. I had only seen drawings before, and for some reason, thought they were waist high. This makes much more sense! lol In fact, this is so inspiring I just may give it a try in my garden! Thanks again for the fabulous tour.

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  3. Quite wonderful! I sure don't know of an American public garden that comes close.

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  4. Flowerlady, thanks for visiting again and leaving such a nice comment!

    Holley, thanks, it makes me happy that you find my post inspiring. It would be too cool, if you would plant a climbing rose circle in your own garden similar to the one in Hyde Park! If you really do it, I am dying to see pictures.

    Rev Roses, thanks for stopping by! Yes, the Rose Garden in Hyde Park is very special, but so were many other public and private gardens that we visited. As Holley said, the Brits are masters in the art of gardening. The way they do it is really an art form, at least that is how I feel about it :-).

    Christina

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  5. Chritina, what an excellent tour of an excellent garden. I also am frustrated not knowing the names of those beautiful roses. The English love their rose gardens which is probably why they go to all that expense.

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  6. Oh, if only I could wave a magic wand and make my garden look like that (without all the work involved of course). I cannot think of any other country that comes even close to England when it comes to garden. I don't know why that should be so but it just is.

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  7. This is my dream garden. I do really like the the use of the huge pillars along the path.

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  8. Thanks, Sherry! I also assume, that the English have a special love for roses and gardening in general, which makes them create all this beauty. How about taking them as an example and let us do the same here in the US, too? At least we could start to try...

    Ingrid, if you have found out how that works with the magic wand let me know. I want a rose garden like the one shown in this post, too ;-)! I agree with you, the English are the leaders in terms of gardening in the world (no offense to any other countries), hands down.

    Stephanie, I felt the same about this garden and in this setting the circle of rose pillars was just extremely beautiful.

    Christina

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  9. Sigh, only in England can you see borders like this... Nothing dries out and crisps in the heat. The rose in the last picture (I am sure it is on one of the other close-ups too) looks a lot like WS2000...

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  10. Masha, believe it or not when we went to East Sussex we have been told that they had been in a drought there! You could be right that the rose is 'William Shakespeare 2000', I trust your judgement :-)!
    Christina

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  11. I do not speak much English, but I want to thank you for visiting my blog. I do not know if it's your garden, but if that is the case, it is beautiful. Thank you again for making me discover this little gem.

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  12. Lydia, the garden featured in this post is not my garden, but I certainly wish it was ;-)! Thanks for becoming a follower!

    Christina

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  13. Hi there! It's 2022 and I just came from that park. I came late, blooming is over but a few rose bushes still have some flowers. The park is indeed a thing of beauty.

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  14. I used to live in London from 1997 - 2007 and lived walking distance from Hyde Park and Regent's Park. I remember walking through the climbing roses and all over Hyde Park. Thanks for the pics cause they bring the memories to my mind.

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