As the roses in our gardens start to come into bloom the Gardens Trust is delighted to announce our new lecture series in partnership with the Historic Roses Group.

Historic roses are timeless and beautiful old roses from past centuries continue to deserve a place in today’s gardens. With their classic ‘old-fashioned’ charm and graceful forms, the soft petals and delicate colours of old roses are often accompanied by a deliciously rich and powerful fragrance. Moreover, old roses contain the original gene pool from which all later roses have been bred. They are supremely rewarding to grow, fascinating to study and they need to be conserved.

These lectures cover not only the history and significance of the rose, but the story of three gardens where they are the star attractions. Our lecturers are all great rosarians - whether as authors, growers or head gardeners and although unfortunately zoom doesn’t allow us to inhale the fragrance of roses these talks will be a feast for the eyes and a fount of rose-related information.

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This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions via the links below

Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

Due to a recent Apple decision to charge a 30% fee for paid online events unfortunately you may no longer be able to purchase this ticket from the Eventbrite iOS app. Please use a web browser on desktop or mobile to purchase or follow the link here.

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Week 1. 2 May. The History of the Rose: First in a series of 5 online lectures, £5 each or all 5 for £20.

Week 2. 9 May. Graham Stuart Thomas and the Roses of Mottisfont Abbey: Second in a series of 5 online lectures, £5 each or all 5 for £20.

Week 3. 16 May. My Time at David Austin Roses: Third in a series of 5 online lectures, £5 each or all 5 for £20.

Week 4. 23 May. Hinton Ampner’s exceptional garden and its roses: Fourth in a series of 5 online lectures, £5 each or all 5 for £20.

Week 5. 6 Jun. Why the Rose: Last in a series of 5 online lectures, £5 each or all 5 for £20.

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Week 2. 30th May: Graham Stuart Thomas and the Roses of Mottisfont Abbey with David Stone

This lavishly illustrated talk tells the story of the history and development of the ornamental Garden Rose. It also tells of the formation of the world-famous display gardens of Historic Roses at Mottisfont Abbey, Hampshire, and the role of Graham Stuart Thomas, the National Trust’s Gardens Adviser, in their creation and establishment. The maintenance and care of shrub roses in general is also covered, with illustrations as to the pruning methods developed by the Garden Team of Mottisfont under their (then) Head Gardener, David Stone.

David Stone was Head Gardener at Mottisfont Abbey from 1978 until 2014. For more than 20 years he worked closely with Graham Thomas at Mottisfont, and today is recognized as a leading authority on the history and cultivation of Historic Roses. He has lectured in Europe, the U.S.A, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. David Stone sits on the committee of the Historic Roses Group, for which he wrote A Newcomer's Guide to Old Roses, a booklet available from the HRG website, and has written on roses in the gardening media. In his spare time he also writes poetry. In 2014 he was awarded the British Empire Medal and made an Associate of Honour of the R.H.S.

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