Coming Up Roses at Highnam Court

There’s a distinct taste of autumn in the air but at Highnam Court you’d be forgiven for thinking it was June. The roses are having a spectacular second flush of blooms and, at Highnam, that means a lot of flowers.

Roger Head, owner of the listed garden near Gloucester, likes roses and has planting a staggering 6,000 since he started restoring Highnam in 1994.

Since my last visit, he’s created two new rose-filled areas and they were cutting through the gloom of a rather grey day earlier this week.

There are roses of every colour at Highnam.

The main new area of roses is alongside the Ladies’ Winter Walk. Here, a complete rainbow of flower has been added with colours ranging from the palest shell pink to tangerine orange.

One of the hot sections of the rose planting.

Roger’s chosen floribunda roses and arranged them to graduate from pastel shades nearest the path through to hot colours.

The obelisks are an interesting counterpoint to the borders.

As with other beds in the garden, horticultural membrane has been laid with chipped bark on top to cut down on the weeding – Roger runs Highnam with just two full-time gardeners and two part-time.

“Everything has membrane,” he says. “We would never keep on top of it otherwise.”

This path has been given a makeover – with roses.

The other new area is either side of a path and links the Broad Walk, a rose garden that dates back to Thomas Gambier Parry’s ownership of Highnam, and a long wisteria-covered pergola.

Perennial planting on one side of the path and grass on the other have made way for a mix of shrub and standard roses.

Again, there’s a range of colours, with, as is Highnam’s style, varieties planted in blocks.

The White Garden is going to be extended.

The White Garden – a lockdown project – was also still full of flower. It’s an area that Roger is planning to alter later this year. The matching borders will be extended to create a narrower path between and instead of the current grass, he’s planning to use white gravel to continue the colour theme. A lavender border will also be added to run alongside the ha-ha.

Pots are among the new concrete pieces.

As ever, there are more sculptures although this time they are made of concrete rather than the usual carved wood. They’ve been made using laser cutting technology and include pots, and an abstract piece.

Elsewhere in the garden, the circular perennial beds are dazzling with colour – hot colours in the outer ring and pastel shades in the centre.

The waterlilies are in bloom on the Lower Lake.

And if you need some calming green, the Lower Lake is the perfect spot.

Highnam Court, near Gloucester, has its last open day for 2023 on Sunday September 3 for the National Garden Scheme. Details on the website.

You can read about more of my garden visits here.

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4 Comments

  1. truly appalling mixture of colours! only a man could get it sooo wrong. Have made a mental note not to go and see Highnam. Shame he did not get me to do the planting for him!!

  2. I’m not overly keen on the mix of colours in his rose areas, but the perennial hot bed is nice. Rosa Southampton is a lovely colour and shape and although I’m not keen on the use of concrete the pots are rather interesting.

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