Roses offer their beauty in graceful waves. Most repeat-flowering varieties bloom in two or sometimes three distinct flushes throughout the growing season. The first flush typically emerges in early summer, producing the garden’s most abundant and dramatic display. After this, the rose takes a quiet pause to replenish energy, during which flower production slows or nearly stops.

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.

Walking through a rose garden and suddenly catching a beautiful scent can feel like a quiet moment of magic. Some roses seem to fill the air with perfume, while others remain nearly scentless. This difference is part of what makes rose fragrance so fascinating.

It begins quietly. You’re walking the garden in the early morning, coffee in hand, admiring the swell of buds after a warm spell. Everything looks as it should, until your eye catches one that seems reluctant to open. The petals are puckered, almost as if they’ve been pinched, and their edges are tinged with a strange brown. A day or two later, another bud does the same. Then a third.

Summers no longer behave as they once did. The balance of sun and rain that shaped our gardens for generations is slipping, replaced by longer dry spells and more intense heat. The soil hardens, moisture disappears quickly, and even the most established plants begin to show signs of stress. Roses, for all their grace and vigour, are no exception. But while the weather is changing, so too can we adapt our approach, caring for our plants with greater awareness and intention.

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.

Suckers are one of those quirks of rose growing that tend to invite a good deal of confusion. They appear out of nowhere, usually low down on the plant or even from the soil nearby, and it’s not always easy to know what to do about them. Are they a sign of strength or something to worry about?

Now that the show gardens have been dismantled and the last petals settle, we take a quiet moment to reflect on this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Chelsea is far more than an event; it is a meeting of minds and a celebration of beauty, carefully tended and thoughtfully shared.

The story behind The King’s Rose™ began with a simple moment of connection. At the Chelsea Flower Show in the 1990s, David J.C. Austin met His Majesty The King, then The Prince of Wales. During their conversation, they discovered they had both grown Ferdinand Pichard, a distinctive, striped old rose, as the first rose in their gardens. It was a small but meaningful exchange that stayed with David.

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.