Mottisfont Abbey is home to the British National Collection of 19th century rose cultivars and ancestral species. Located in Hampshire, England, the mansion was built on the remains of a 12th-century Augustinian priory that sits alongside the River Test, the river on which FM Halford, the father of modern fly-fishing, fishes. The priory was founded in 1201 by William Briwere, advisor to King Richard the Lionheart, and over the years passed through a series of hands until in 1957 it was donated to the National Trust (NT) by Mr Gilbert Russell, who he was a descendant of William Briwere.
In 1972 the Trust created what would become the home of the famous collection of historic shrub roses created by Graham Stewart Thomas. In 1934, Gilbert Russell planted a knot garden parterre, an octagon of yew trees, and an avenue of folded lime trees. Pleaching is the art of forming trees into a raised hedge. Linden trees are planted at regular intervals and close enough together that where the branches touch they are bruised and then, in effect, graft onto their neighbours’ branches, to form a hedge. Tree trunks remain free to a height of six feet or more. Eventually the effect is that of a dense, closely clipped hedge sitting on the visible trunks of the trees.
Graham Stewart Thomas redesigned the 18th century walled garden and replanted it in the style of an English garden. Some of the more than 300 preserved roses are varieties of pre-1900 shrub and climbing roses, some of which are very rare. Rose varieties such as Indigo, Single Pink China, and Glory of a Child of Hiram are some of the rarest. The roses accumulated after some 30 years of collecting in France, Germany, the USA, and numerous gardens and nurseries in the British Isles.
The best time to visit these gardens and see the roses at their best is between June 5 and June 20. This flowering period of just over two weeks demonstrates one of the shortcomings of these older types of roses, their very short flowering period.
As you walk through the walled gardens of Mottisfont Abbey, your senses are assaulted by the fabulous scents of ancient roses creeping up the walls, arches and pergolas. In some places, other plants intermingle with the roses, giving a fantastic picture of intense color.
Mottisfont Abbey is owned and managed by the UK National Trust and is open from 1st February to 20th December from 11am to 5pm Email: [email protected]