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“This has never been done before,” Marriott says. “The roses are so close that no soil will be visible. Both are known for their disease resistance, so the idea is that we won’t have to spray.”

At the Savill Garden, in the Royal Landscape within Windsor Great Park, Berkshire, another contemporary rose-only garden is being created for 2010. The focus of Andrew Wilson’s design is sensory experience: repeat flowerers of intense colour and scent, such as the deep carmine ‘Alfred Colomb’, will be planted beside grasses beneath a “floating” raised walkway, where the visitor will be surrounded with scent.

Roses are equally at home in naturalistic gardens, where wild species, usually confined to hedgerows, are added to borders and garden varieties are allowed to run up trees and into other plants, rather than being made to behave.

In the two-acre garden at Lime Kiln House, in Claydon, Suffolk, there is a ban on pruning — regular species and ramblers have been left to their own devices, and many flower as tall as trees. This “rosarium” was created by the late Humphrey Brooke, secretary of the Royal Academy of Arts. Since his death in 1988, the garden has been neglected and closed to the public, but Kathy Kalafat and Tim Young, the new owners, are restoring it; it is due to reopen next year.

Ian and Susie Pasley-Tyler are seeking to enhance the romantic natural look by letting their roses ramble up trees at Coton Manor, their home in Northamptonshire. At least 12 varieties are established, with more being added annually.

The flowers also find their way up the trees at Zena Grant’s Kypp Cottage, near Biddenden, Kent, weaving in and out of other plants such as clematis. “I let my roses scamper wherever they can,” Grant says. “I don’t prune them because I prefer the garden to look full and natural.” The majority are ramblers and shrubs. “I have two hybrid teas,” Grant says, “but those were given as presents and I don’t prune them.”

Kypp, which is open regularly through the summer for the National Gardens Scheme, is a semi-woodland garden, so many, such as the shrub rose ‘Fantin Latour’ (which reaches 8ft), ‘Jacqueline Du Pré’ and several types of rugosa, forgo full sun. “People are amazed at how many I have in semi-shade,” Grant says, “but not all need sun. The rose has a wild character, so she seems at home in among the trees.”

It’s a far cry from the formality of the Moorish gardens of Andalusia, but shows the rose will fit in anywhere.

Suppliers: David Austin Roses (01902 376300, davidaustinroses.com); Wych Cross (01342 822705, wychcross.co.uk); Apuldram Roses (01243 785769, apuldramroses.co.uk)

Gardens to visit: Coughton Court (01789 762435, nationaltrust.org.uk); Alnwick Garden (01665 511350, www.alnwickgarden. com); Sissinghurst Castle (01580 710701, nationaltrust.org.uk); RHS Garden Wisley (0845 260 9000, rhs.org.uk); Mottisfont Abbey (01794 340757, nationaltrust.org.uk); the Royal National Rose Society (01727 850461, rnrs.org.uk); Trentham Estate (01782 646646, trenthamleisure.co.uk); Schloss Marihn (schloss-marihn.de); Savill Garden (theroyallandscape.co.uk); Coton Manor (01604 740219, cotonmanor.co.uk); Kypp Cottage (01580 291480, ngs.org.uk)

Explore Gardens

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