Explore the roses in the garden at Moseley Old Hall

When soldiers came looking for the fugitive King Charles II at Moseley Old Hall in 1651, the owner, Mr Thomas Whitgreave, threw open the doors of his home and went to tend the roses in his garden to show he had nothing to hide. Today we have several old varieties of rose in the garden here for you to enjoy.

Pride of place in our front garden is the 'Rosa Mundi', first described in 1583, it was highly prized as it is a genetic mutation of the 'Red Damask' rose and can revert at random to a fully red state. According to 'The Garden Book' of Sir Thomas Hammer, it was first found in Norfolk upon a branch of the common red rose'. In our garden it is with others such as the Dog Rose and De Meaux that are held up with frames made from our own hazel branches.

The roses in our garden are scented, notably the variety 'Maiden's Blush' which grows next to our herb garden and has an 'Old Rose' scent.

Although the garden is laid out in a seventeenth century style and the plants are all varieties of those available at the time there is one exception. The garden was actually designed and created in 1962 by hotriculturalist and National Trust Gardens Adviser, Graham Stuart Thomas, so we have his rose here too.