Inspiration

Guest blog by Helen Cross - Author, Journalist, Presenter, and School Gardening Champion. At the start of every gardening session with a new group of children, I always ask them what flower, fruit, or vegetable they would like to grow in their school garden. You might be surprised, but over the last five years, three or four out of every ten children have told me they want to grow roses.

David Austin^® Roses are loved for their beauty and character, yet they serve two very different purposes. Our garden roses are created to live and flourish outdoors, returning year after year with timeless colour, fragrance and charm. Our Wedding Roses by contrast, are grown exclusively for the floral industry, crafted to create exquisite bouquets and floral arrangements for life’s most memorable moments.

In the quiet town of Woodbury, Connecticut, sits the Old Glebe House Museum, an 18th-century parsonage with a remarkable story to tell. Within its grounds lies something truly special: one of only three gardens in the United States designed by the legendary British plants woman, Gertrude Jekyll. It is also the only one fully realised according to her original plan.

Planting a climbing or rambling rose in a pot is one of the most effective ways to introduce height, fragrance and structure to smaller gardens, courtyards and terraces. Whether used to frame a doorway, create a flowering screen along a wall or soften the lines of an obelisk, these roses offer a remarkable display when given the right conditions. Though the approach demands a little more upkeep than planting in open ground, the rewards are considerable: abundant blooms, repeat flowering, and a sense of movement and beauty that elevates even the most compact of spaces.

Few roses are held in such regard as Gertrude Jekyll^® (Ausbord). Valued for its rich, mid-pink blooms and one of the strongest Old Rose fragrances in cultivation, it has become a familiar name among gardeners. Yet it is not only the scent that secures its place. This is a rose with structure, presence and the ability to draw planting together. It offers more than a single season’s beauty. It gives shape to the garden and settles easily among other plants, whether used in formal arrangements or in looser, more naturalistic schemes.

From the kitchen window of Bowling Green House, the view is quiet but alive. Beyond the old glass panes, a narrow canal runs still beneath the branches of the weeping ash, its surface shifting with light and the soft wake of ducks. Native reeds and waterlilies fringe the banks, creating a scene that feels more discovered than designed. David C. H. Austin had it dug after admiring something similar in a friend’s garden. Here, it became the garden’s steady centre, a reflective ribbon running through the planting, anchoring moments of calm.

Deadheading roses can feel a bit like clearing up after something quietly wonderful. One flower fades, its colours softening and edges curling, while another is just beginning to open, full of promise. Suddenly your hands are full of petals - soft, warm from the sun, and still carrying that unmistakable, subtle scent of the garden. It’s easy to let them drop back to the soil, returning to where they came from. But sometimes they feel too lovely to leave behind, as though they’ve still got more to offer.

Each June, as the nation gathers to mark Trooping the Colour, a ceremony full of history and pageantry, there is another way to celebrate. Not on the parade ground but in the garden, where beauty grows with care and purpose.

The garden at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show was designed to feel like a retreat. It was calm, immersive, and deeply personal, built around the idea of a secret sanctuary. While the space itself was large, the principles behind the design can be applied at any scale. Here’s how to recreate that atmosphere in your own garden.

This year at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, we’ve created something truly special - a garden that feels like a quiet retreat. Inspired by the idea of a hidden sanctuary, our Secret Garden is calm, immersive, and filled with roses that each tell part of the story. At 16m x 16m, it’s our most ambitious stand yet, but also our most personal.

The King’s Rose^® is unlike anything we’ve bred before. With its soft stripes, gentle fragrance and natural charm, it marks a distinctive new direction for the David Austin^® collection. Created in support of The King’s Foundation, this rose brings together beauty, purpose and a quiet nod to tradition.

David C. H. Austin, known for his deep love of dogs, was rarely seen without his Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Bertie. Whether wandering through the rose gardens, riding on his gator, or enjoying quiet moments in the restaurant, their bond was unmistakable. 

As Chelsea approaches, there’s a familiar feeling of anticipation, one we’ve come to know well over the years. Each rose we release carries with it over a decade of care, dedication and trust in the process. This year, we’re preparing to introduce a rose we hold especially close, our most prestigious yet, and we can’t wait to share it with you.