The Rose of the Year launch has become one of my very favourite events to attend. What is not to love: I catch up with people I like, I visit an amazing garden and I come away with a gifted new rose for my garden. The win of all wins. I know, I am lucky.
This is Marylin, who along with Ian run 'Roses Uk' - the British Association of Rose Growers, an organisation for the promotion of roses/rose growers. They do not sell any roses themselves; but they promote roses and they run this competition .
The Rose of the Year 2024 winner is Meteor, bred by Kordes, who have bred several winners of this prize. The announcement is always the year before so that nurseries can stock up. The actual lead up to the award takes a few years too as they have to wait for enough stock to have been produced, a rose does not grow overnight! Meteor has a light scent and the flowers start gold yellow and get increasingly flushed red. The more sun it gets the more red it will get. It is a repeat flowerer and gets to be about 70 cm high, so a good border rose and will also be good in a pot. We were given a shrub to bring home with us.
Mine will be planted soon in the Dye Garden, which is increasingly becoming also part-rose garden (Smell me and Dye Garden as it is now called. I was given this rose but I am not under any obligation to write it about it.
The Rose of the Year announcement happens at a different garden each year and this year it was at Waterperry Gardens in Oxfordshire. I have visited Waterperry a couple of times and it was a joy to return. When I looked the last time I visited was in March 2020, so it was just before the lockdown happened.
It was a roasting hot day when we visited, but I made sure I had time to wander around the grounds. I nodded hello to this chap who sits on top of the wall. He is keeping cool with an ivy-wrap.
I wandered the long border that is looking very fine at the moment.
I admired the hazel twig supports for the roses at Waterperry. This is a lovely way of growing roses and makes the blooms stand out so well.
The Silent space is one of my favourite parts of the garden. I made sure I got in there when no one else was so that I could enjoy my silence.
There is a peace in this garden that is very special.
and even though the wisteria were going over, the scent was still strong.
I made sure I visited the Yew Henge,
When I first visited in 2014 the Yew Henge was still in its early days. It has developed so well.
I nodded hello to the amphitheatre, which is such a fantastic structure,
and admired the rose arbors in the Rose Garden.
Waterperry is such a great garden, with a special place in gardening history, which I wrote about following my first visit, you can read about it here.
We had the most wonderful day, I have to give a huge thanks to Marilyn and Ian for inviting me and a huge thanks to the team at Waterperry for looking after us so well in the garden and for the delicious lunch. Good days are made like this.