Mottisfont Abbey - a Rose Lover's Paradise IV

For me a nice way to celebrate my fourth blog anniversary, which was on January, 1st this year, is to post about one of the most famous and beautiful rose gardens in the world, again: Mottisfont Abbey. This garden is very dear to my heart and maybe you develop a soft spot for it, too.

I posted about this garden already three times (for your convenience, please find the links to the previous posts attached at the end of this entry), but we are still in the second walled garden, which contains a lot of mature climbing roses fanned out artfully on the old brick walls. For many roses I couldn't find a name tag, but when I did, of course, I let you know.

The photo above shows a well grown specimen of 'Celine Forestier', a light yellow Noisette, bred by Victor Trouillard (France, 1842). The rose collection at Mottisfont Abbey holds a lot of roses, that I have never seen in person, like this one. Besides the extraordinary beauty of the garden itself, this is part of the special appeal that it has for me.

Another unknown to me beautifully grown climbing rose. Some of the climbing roses there were huge, like the one above. They really seem to like the sheltered conditions in the walled gardens that they are growing in. I always wonder, if the gardeners at Mottisfont Abbey do special stuff to improve the quality of the soil, to be able to grow such magnificent roses.

But not only outstanding roses are grown in Mottisfont Abbey Rose Gardens. There are also many fascinating perennials to be admired like this light yellow, almost chartreuse colored scabiosa variety, which I liked very much.

Here is a shot of the whole plant. It is unusual tall for a scabiosa and needed to be staked, but it is such a lovely addition to the border.

I liked this garden scene containing a tall pruned yew, yellow phlomis, lady's mantle and a cerise opulently flowering peony.

This is 'Climbing Souvenir de la Malmaison', a Bourbon, that was discovered by Charles Bennett (United Kingdom, 1893). I always have been fascinated by this light, soft pink rose with the double, flat, quartered blooms and hope it is in my future to grow at least the shrub form by myself.

Yet another shot along one of the walled rose borders. I love that at Mottisfont Abbey roses are not just grown by themselves, but they are shown off by beautiful perennials surrounding them.

And the view is as lovely looking into the other direction.

This climbing rose shows well, how professionally they are pruned and trained at Mottisfont so that the roses can show off their full potential when they bloom.

I loved this color combination of the violet rose, the pink and white columbine (aquilegia) and the unknown to me blue flowering plant.

This beauty is called 'Oeillet Parfait', a lilac Damask, from an unknown breeder from 1841. Now, this is a rose that I hadn't even heard of before I saw it at Mottisfont. So exciting! I just love the color and form of the blooms.

This rose seemed to want to bloom much later than the others that I am showing in this post and was full of hundreds of little cute buds. It must have been a great joy to see it in full bloom!

Again, no identity for this one, but I love the burgundy stripes.

Another brick wall with climbing roses trained on it. As you can see many roses do fabulous in Mottisfont Abbey, but even there not all of them do equally well, just like in everyone else's garden. It is almost a relieve, isn't it?

'Mme. Isaac Pereire', a Bourbon, bred by Armand Garcon, is one of my most favorite roses. Its deep pink colored, sumptuous, large and very full blooms have an irresistible charm to me. But the real astonishing thing about this rose is its exquisite fragrance. If you have ever smelled the very strong, pleasing, raspberry fragrance of a bloom of this rose warmed by the sun, you will never be able to forget it. It is just one of the joys in live!

One plant combination that I find particularly charming: white foxgloves, cerise peonies, and blue irises. Just wonderful!

This rose, 'Souvenir du Docteur Jamain', a Hybrid Perpetual, bred by Francois Lacharme (France, 1865) was one of the roses that didn't thrive at Mottisfont Abbey Rose Gardens, but, oh my gosh, the color! One of the most exquisite shades of a violet dark red that I have ever seen. Completely captivating! My photo does not do this rose justice, it was so much more lovely in person.

Another of the many beautiful peonies blooming in the garden.

I really would love to know what the name of this rose is. To me it looks very much like 'Cl. Devoniensis', a Tea rose that I grow in a container in my own garden.

Here is a close-up of the blooms. Do you have any guesses?

Not only roses were thriving at Mottisfont Abbey, foxgloves loved it there as well.

I was so smitten by this white variety. It fits in everywhere and simply lighten things up in such an easy going way.

I think 'Climbing Lady Hillingdon', a Tea rose with large saturated yellow blooms, discovered by Elisha J. Hicks (United Kingdom, 1917) was one of the most elegant and impressive roses that we saw at Mottisfont Abbey Rose Gardens.

Here is a close-up of the blooms of  'Cl. Lady Hillingdon'. You can clearly recognize the typical drooping bloom form of Tea roses with the edges of the petals curling backwards. Unfortunately this flower shape is currently very much out of fashion, because many people prefer the upright Hybrid Tea flower shape as the ideal rose bloom form, but I truly hope, that Tea roses will have a comeback. Teas certainly have their very unique charm and beauty that deserves to be preserved and survive.

One more shot of this gorgeous specimen of  'Cl. Lady Hillingdon'. Same rose as above, but photographed from the other side.

Another rose that I had never hear off before I visited Mottisfont Abbey is 'Mrs. Paul', a light pink climbing Bourbon, bred by George Paul (United Kingdom, 1891). Not a vigorous rose in comparison to others at Mottisfont Abbey,..

...but the stunning large pale pink scalloped blooms make it totally worth growing.

If you are interested and want to view the previous posts that I have published about this garden, here are the links:

Mottisfont Abbey - a rose lover's paradise III
Mottisfont Abbey - a rose lover's paradise II
Mottisfont Abbey - a rose lover's paradise I

Since, as I said in the introduction to this post, my blog has just celebrated its fourth anniversary, I would like to take the chance and thank all of you my dear readers for visiting and also for all the kind comments that you have been leaving. They always make my day! I hope you will join me for another year of blogging. I am really looking forward to it!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Rapid Changes

In January and even February my garden looked pretty drab, but suddenly in March things are changing at a rapid pace. It really feels like with the beginning of spring the garden has decided to wake up and is bursting at the seams with the energy of life. Plants explode into the most beautiful shades of fresh green and even though my garden is still not a riot of color, things are starting to bloom. This is with no doubt my most favorite time of the year!




This photo was taken in January. To the left you see a pruned 'Pretty Jessica', in the middle between the roses two geranium 'Rozanne' try to survive, 'Marie Pavie' is showing the last blooms of her winter flush and to the very right an unknown alstroemeria is already growing vigorously. She obviously liked the winter rains quite a bit. For some reasons especially in the front yard I was really longing for some color at that point.




So I went to the nursery and bought three six packs of pansies 'Beaconsfield',...




...planted some of them in containers,...

and stuck others in the ground,...

...and tadaa, this is how this section of the garden looks right now. The pansies in the container are showing off nicely, but the ones on the ground are hardly to see anymore, disguised by all the new rose leaves. I fertilized the roses and they responded by leaving out with incredible vigor. It is such a joy to observe this. The two geranium 'Rozanne' are not struggling at all anymore but growing strongly and on top of that have started to bloom. The alstroemeria is blooming already as well. I didn't prune 'Marie Pavie' at all and feel that was the right decision. She has made so many fresh new leaves and has become a very full nice bush. It is hard to see on this picture, but she has set plenty of buds. 

One that was very hidden is opening already.




On the terrace in the backyard I had a 'Mme. Isaac Pereire' growing in a container. I had transplanted her from a smaller container into this big nice terracotta one and sadly she was struggling ever since.




So I dug her out to see what the problem was. Her root ball was so tiny, it was unbelievable. It had literally shrunk, since I transplanted her from a two gallon container into the big terracotta one. My experience with pampering struggling roses is not the best and since there are so many in small containers waiting for a bigger home I decided to get rid of this rose.




To replace 'Mme. Isaac Pereire' I grabbed 'Mary Rose' from my pot ghetto,...

... pruned and deleaved her to get ready to be transplanted into the terracotta container. Do you see how nicely developed her root ball is? It is almost four times as big as the one of 'Mme. Isaac Pereire' shown a few photos above.

Then 'Mary Rose' went into her new home. That was just in Feburary.

Yesterday she looked like this! She has taken off and even though not very good to see on this photo, she has set a lot of buds. One very hidden in the middle of the plant under the leaves is already showing a nice pink color and will open very soon.

Back to the front yard, again. Here is a 'Climbing Iceberg' after it was pruned in January. 

By today the rose has leaved out nicely and also set many, many buds.

Three sad looking roses from my pot ghetto in January. From the left to the right: 'Snowbird', 'Chandos Beauty', 'Auckland Metro'. After I took the photo I deleaved and pruned them, potted them up in bigger containers and gave them some fertilizer. 

 

This photo above was taken this week. They have come quite around, haven't they? All three roses are supposed to flower in different shades of off-white. The very best of the three will be chosen to be planted in my White Bed, replacing a 'Climbing Iceberg', which had grown way to big for the space and was removed. For now 'Auckland Metro' seems to be the winner out of the three.

The banana-shaped bed in the front yard in January. Quite a dreary sight! The small yellowish plants to both outer sides of the bed are white verbenas, which never did well, so I decided to take them out. The rose to the left is 'Sweetness'. Then there is an alstroemeria planted in between the roses called 'Little Miss Sophie', which has grown a little bit too much so I reduced the size quite a bit. There are also four blue-violet penstemon 'Pinacolada Violet' in that bed, which I tried to revive by fertilizing and watering them more. The rose to the very right is 'Our Lady of Guadalupe'. In their pruned stage you can see that both roses are quite strong specimen. They are approximately four years old. 

The same bed now! What a difference! I decided to plant white pansies on the outer sides of the bed. The alstroemeria 'Little Miss Sophie' has started to bloom and both roses are loaded with buds. As a matter of fact, 'Sweetness' is showing quite a bit of color. Even though not so clear to see on the photo, all four penstemon 'Pinacolada Violet' have recovered nicely. I also mulched the bed with compost. I feel that this greatly helped the plants to look that good.

The area by the kitchen door, which leads into the backyard. I was unhappy with this one and decided to try to make it more appealing, since I am usually walking through this door a few times a day. It is also part of the terrace area where we normally sit and relax and this year I really want to make the whole area more beautiful.

I started out by pruning all roses and moved the roses in the black plastic containers into the pot ghetto by the side of the house. I cleaned the empty terracotta containers and put them into the garage. 

This is how the area looked yesterday. I transplanted one miniature rose, 'Jilly Jewel', waiting in the pot ghetto from a one gallon black plastic pot into a slightly bigger terracotta container. It is the one to the very left. The big roses in the large containers are two 'Charles Darwin' roses. To the very right is 'Irresistible', a miniature rose, that was there before, but has now leaved out nicely. First I intended to plant pansies in the two smallest containers closest to the kitchen door, but then when I came across these lovely 'Dwarf English Boxwood' I decided to get those instead. The white pansies that I planted in those containers the previous year didn't last very long, I guess because it is becoming too hot too soon. Hopefully I have more luck with the boxwood.

I think by now, I like the fresh green color that the boxwood provides more than I would have liked pansies. Besides this, they remind me of England. There boxwood is used intensively for hedges, topiaries or is simply pruned into spheres of all kind of sizes. I hope mine will become nice round big spheres as well when they get more mature.

On Easter Sunday I will be flying out of town and don't think I get to blog anymore, therefore I would like to wish to all of you who celebrate it a very Happy Easter!

See you in the garden!

Christina