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/
Week One on April 17 is The Humour of Hole with Martin Stott. This presentation is about the Rev. Samuel Reynolds Hole, 1819-1904, celebrated Anglican preacher, rosarian, horticulturalist, prolific letter-writer, author of the immensely popular A Book about Roses (W. Blackwood and Sons, 1869) among other works, and Dean of Rochester Cathedral. He was the first organizer of the National Rose Show in London, one of the inaugural recipients of the Victoria Medal of Honour awarded by the Royal Horticultural Society and the first president of the National Rose Society, 1876-1904.
A former journalist who has written for most of the UK’s national press, Martin Stott has made programs for Radio 4 and the BBC World Service in 21 countries. He is the co-editor of By Any Other Name, the heritage rose journal of the World Federation of Rose Societies and has written for the Historic Rose Journal and Gardens Illustrated. He is a member of the HRG and writes a garden history blog (see below). As well as being a keen rose grower, Martin is currently leading the restoration of a rare Georgian town garden at Bromley House Library in Nottingham – a garden that retains many of its original features from when the Grade 2*-listed house was created in 1752. He also has a growing collection of memorabilia about ‘the Rose King’, the Rev. Dean Hole; and a tolerant wife.
