One of the main reasons I chose a career in gardening was my love of plants. As a child I had lots of fun growing different plants either to earn extra pocket money or enhance the colour in the garden.
While studying at college, identification tests were something I relished; the plant world is vast, there is always more to learn and discover.
I worked in different gardens around the country, each with different palettes of plants suitable for their climate and soils, highlighting the gardener’s skills in creating combinations, seasonal drama and importantly making each garden unique, echoing their history and ethos.
RHS Rosemoor has many plant gems which make the garden what it is. We have well over 11,000 different types of plants, many in multiples and planted in groups; of this number, and following a Plant Heritage audit, over 900 are considered threatened or endangered in cultivation.
RHS Garden Rosemoor – Rosa The Fairy in The Shrub Rose Garden. (Image: RHS / Jon Webster)
Some of these have been at Rosemoor for many years, others are more recent, and Rosemoor is special because of all of them; but what interests me is finding out the stories behind them – how they were named or who gifted them to the garden. Some have stories echoing the garden’s history and others are more personal because they are linked to those people you meet on your gardening journey.
Rosemoor was gifted to the RHS by Lady Anne Berry in 1988. Her family had owned the estate since the 1920s and she inherited it in the 1950s.
At the time she was not really interested in the garden, however a chance meeting in Spain with a gardening legend would change this.
Collingwood Ingram – nicknamed ‘Cherry’ for his interest and knowledge of Japanese flowering cherries – enthused her with his passion for plants and after this encounter the gardening chapter at Rosemoor began in earnest.
One thing gardeners are good at is sharing plants, as well as knowledge, and from this friendship we have many unusual plants which were given as gifts to Lady Anne from his garden in Kent, and which still thrive today.
RHS Garden Rosemoor – Rhododendron ‘Lady Anne’ in the Arboretum. (Image: RHS / Jon Webster)
A rhododendron which has grown happily since it was planted in 1972 below the Mediterranean Garden is one of his hybrids, a cross between Rhododendron calophytum and R. ririei. Collingwood Ingram is more well-known for breeding cherries, but he also bred many rhododendrons, although sadly many are now lost to cultivation. This partcular plant is a one-off and has always been an impressive sight, but it was never given a name. So, a few years ago, we registered it Rhododendron ‘Lady Anne’. We thought it a great tribute to both her and her gardening mentor.
R. ‘Lady Anne’ is now a mature, tree-like plant and is covered in beautiful pink flowers in spring, although as it flowers early it is quite often caught by frosts.
Another plant family which Lady Anne collected and weaved throughout her garden were flowering dogwoods. Cornus kousa hail from Japan, China and Korea and they thrive in our climate.
Cornus Kousa ‘Rosemoor Pink’ (Image: RHS / Jon Webster)
There are so many different named selections to choose from with different growth habits to suit any garden, from dwarf forms to weeping, to tree-like. Each will give you colourful flowers around June time, followed by strawberry-like fruits and then good autumn colour.
We hold a Plant Heritage National Collection and have continued Lady Anne’s love of these beautiful plants, adding more as the garden has grown over time.
One really special one she planted was called Cornus kousa var. rosea. A book called Dogwoods – The Genus Cornus was published in 2005 and noted this particular plant as being worth naming due to being ‘exceptionally wonderful’. It differs from others by having bright pink flowers from the onset which don’t really fade, along with a layered habit of growth – despite its age it keeps low in height.
We have now propagated this individual to safeguard it for the future and now have several groups planted around Rosemoor, and a few years ago, we registered it as Cornus kousa ‘Rosemoor Pink’.
The fabulous Wisteria sinensis ‘Prolific’ is planted against Rosemoor House. (Image: RHS / Jon Webster)
Another plant steeped in history is planted against Rosemoor House. Wisteria sinensis ‘Prolific’ has grown here for many years and is a sight to behold when in flower in May and June.
I remember reading a monograph about wisteria published in 2019, and in the book was a photograph of our plant in full flower and with a name. We had never known its cultivar name and as it had been there so long we’d not really thought about it, so it was good to have this confirmed.
Rosemoor is an amazing space to grow plants but one thing I would like more of is walls, where I could grow more of these showstopping plants.
A couple of slightly newer plants at Rosemoor were named after the garden for a big anniversary, back in 2004.
This year was the bicentenary of the RHS and to celebrate a collection of plants were gathered in preparation and released to mark the occasion.
Rosa Rosemoor (Austough PBR) is a lovely rose bred by David Austin. (Image: RHS / Jason ingram)
In our Shrub Rose Garden, we have a lovely rose bred by David Austin, Rosa Rosemoor (‘Austough’ PBR); it has small pink rosette flowers with an old rose fragrance. It makes a nice, rounded bush and several adorn one of the entrances to the garden.
Another in this collection was a daffodil called Narcissus ‘Rosemoor Gold’ which grows in the bank just below the entrance. It was selected from a trial of unnamed selections with possible potential at RHS Wisley on its old trials field. At the time I was working there and remember packing these up to send to Rosemoor once the trial was over and they had been named. The following year I relocated and joined them in Devon! It’s a great selection, flowering in March and producing two or three scented heads per stem, looking like the typical daffodil flower with the outer petals pointed and a rich golden-yellow.
Trees are my passion and one of my favourites is the sweet gum, it must be one of the best sights in autumn with its bright red to purple hues.
An unusual cultivar is Liquidambar acalycina ‘Spinners’ – a Chinese species, rather than the more commonly seen North American Liquidambar styraciflua. It was selected and named by the late Peter Chappell after his garden and nursery in Hampshire. For many years we’d go to see Peter and the amazing range of unusual plants he grew, and walking around Rosemoor now, I see many of his plants here, growing and maturing and all coming from this annual trip.
This particular tree is planted in several locations, but the original Peter gave me is in the Arboretum, surrounded by many other trees selected for great autumn colour. What I love about ‘Spinners’ is that it starts to colour up in summer and is still holding on to its leaves in December, and it’s smaller in habit, so is able to be grown in our own gardens at home.
The love of plants can be infectious and what I like about my job and working at Rosemoor is plants! Conserving old cultivars which are no longer grown, but in many cases should be, and then choosing the best of the new selections to add to the garden – and each of these will have a new story to tell.
The fun never stops and fortunately I have more room than at home to indulge this pleasure. .
Jon Webster is curator at RHS Garden Rosemoor gardens
The arboretum at RHS Garden Rosemoor. (Image: RHS / Soundview Media)
What’s on at Rosemoor this month
Welly Walk: Birds in the garden, with the education team, suitable for children age five and under. Booking essential. February 9
Weddings & Life Celebrations Fayre: A range of local suppliers for a wedding weekend. February 28-March 1.
Workshops: taking place throughout the month, including success with sweet peas (Feb 7); know your soil (Feb 14) and houseplants for beginners (Feb 19).
February jobs for your garden
Prepare vegetable seed beds and sow some vegetables under cover.
Chit potato tubers.
Protect blossom on apricots, nectarines and peaches.
Net fruit and vegetable crops to keep birds off.
Prune winter flowering shrubs that have finished flowering.
Prune wisteria.
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