Boston Flora

Tag: Historic Rose Group

  • Monday, May 30, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Why the Rose, Online

    This talk is the final lecture in a series sponsored by The Gardens Trust in association with the Historic Rose Group. £5. Register through Eventbrite HERE. 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.

    I ask the rose, ‘From whom did you steal that beauty?’ The rose laughs softly out of shame, but how should she tell? Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi.

    In this talk, writer and horticultural historian Jennifer Potter sets out to answer the question posed by the Persian poet, mystic and scholar, Rumi, more than seven centuries ago. What makes the rose so special to so many cultures around the world? How to explain its transformation from a simple briar of the northern hemisphere into the western world’s favorite flower? Ranging widely across cultures and art forms, the talk tracks the rose’s shifting associations with love, sex, death and the great religions of East and West, overturning along the way many cherished rose myths.

    When first approached by her publishers to write a book about the rose, Jennifer Potter secretly wondered if we really needed another book on the rose. Quickly hooked by this most potent of flowers, she spent the next five years researching and writing The Rose, A True History (Atlantic Books, 2010), embarking on a journey that took her from the rose fields of Iran to the White House Rose Garden. The author of four novels and six works of non-fiction, she wrote a celebrated biography of the John Tradescants: Strange Blooms, The Curious Lives and Adventures of the John Tradescants (Atlantic Books, 2006), and followed her book on the rose with Seven Flowers and How They Shaped Our World (Atlantic Books, 2013), which has been translated into Chinese.

  • Monday, May 23, 1:00 pm – The Rose: Hinton Ampner’s Exceptional Garden, Online

    The Gardens Trust, in association with the Historic Roses Group, will sponsor a Zoom lecture on May 23 at 1 pm Eastern time with John Wood. This ticket is for this individual session and costs £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.

    Hinton Ampner is a National Trust property with a 14-acre garden set amid the rolling Hampshire countryside. The garden has an exceptional framework with wonderful vistas complemented by topiary and a great variety of plants including dahlias, roses and salvias, as well as woodland areas. Roses are grown at Hinton Ampner in many varied locations and styles: in formal beds, long borders, mixed with other plants or trained on walls, and clambering high into trees. In his talk John Wood, head gardener, will cover how he deals with restoring rose borders and what to consider when planting your roses. He will share some of his favourite roses and talk about the situations in which he uses them.

    John Wood has worked for the National Trust for 25 Years. Having started at Mottisfont to assist the head gardener, David Stone, with the restoration of the renowned Walled Rose Garden, it was there that he developed his love of roses. In 2000 John moved to Hinton Ampner. Here John and his team have restored the Walled Garden and continue restoring many of the large beds and borders. In his spare time John tends to his own collection of roses. He is a member of the committee of the Historic Rose Group, has helped build and staff the HRG’s award-winning stands at the Hampton Court Flower Show, also providing the spectacular bouquets of roses for display there and at RHS Wisley’s Plant Society weekend show. John is also an expert photographer and his images feature in HRG publicity.