This year, following on from the Gardens Trust’s successful 2022 series on the rose, in partnership with the Historic Roses Group, the Gardens Trust is happy to announce a new rose-related lecture series, again with the HRG, this time including an international slant.
With speakers hailing from Iceland to Australia, via England, Italy and the USA, these talks are wide-ranging. We begin with a portrait of a popular 19th century rosarian who loved riding as much as roses, knew everyone on the literary scene, was a celebrity preacher and organized the first ever National Rose Show in London. An account of a hillside rose garden in Italy which started as a collection of pots on a terrace in Rome; how to grow roses in the Arctic Circle and ‘down under’ on a working Australia farm; the intriguing stories behind the names of some romantic heritage roses; and where to find a unique UN Food and Agriculture Organization collection of the other – edible – members of the rosaceae family continue the series. We finish with practical advice about training and pruning your climbers, whether roses or wisterias, from a professional horticultural gardener, the latest in three generations of market gardeners and a shows organizer and designer whose sumptuous stands have won medals for the Historic Roses Group at the Hampton Court Flower Show.
This ticket costs £28 for the entire course of 7 sessions or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £5. 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. Register through Eventbrite HERE or visit https://thegardenstrust.org/events-archive/page/3/
In week Six, Helga Brichet will speak on Il Piccolo Roseto di Giovanni Chilanti. This small rose garden on a hillside outside Rome overlooking olive groves was established by Italian engineer Emanuele Dotti in memory of a dear friend who had inspired him with a love of old and species roses. It started life as a collection of roses grown in large containers on the terrace of Emanuele’s Rome apartment, but soon expanded so that outside space became urgently needed to house them. Some land on the edge of a small village outside Rome was located, and this is the story of how the rose garden developed, with over 600 roses bushes in beds, borders, and climbing up olive trees, overlooking a valley in a beautiful countryside setting. Now there are plans to establish a reading room in the farmhouse for visitors, with a collection of books on roses from the late Milton Nurse, former editor of the Historic Rose Journal, donated by the Historic Roses Group.
Helga Brichet is a distinguished rosarian, plant-hunter and lecturer who was President of the World Federation of Rose Societies (WFRS) from 1997 – 2000. Now Emeritus President, she lives with her Belgian husband, André, in Italy, on a 5-acre hillside property in Santa Maria, Umbria, central Italy. Here Helga grows a large number of China roses and Hybrid Giganteas, Hybrid Sempervirens and “Mystery Roses” from Bermuda. In her 9 years as chairman of the WFRS Conservation Committee she established the Specialised Conservation Committee, constructing an international database on endangered rose varieties and their location. One of her ambitions has been to introduce to rose lovers in the western hemisphere old and historical roses from China, many scarcely known previously in the west. In 2000 a beautiful chance seedling rose with single pale pink blooms, discovered by Australian nurseryman John Nieuwesteeg, was named ‘Helga Brichet’.
