The Rose Garden at Mottisfont

Pruning and deadheading

We don't tend to deadhead our unique rose collection, which can be a surprise for some visitors.

Most of the old-fashioned types only flower once a year and afterwards, produce ornamental fruit or ‘hips', which, as well as brightening the garden in autumn, provide local birds with an important source of winter food.

For repeat flowering roses the team remove the spent blooms by cutting the stem back to a healthy new bud which will encourage them to keep flowering.

The beauty of the garden

Over 500 varieties of rose bloom in Mottisfont’s walled garden at its peak. Discover varieties such as Rosa ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ – a sumptuous pale pink bourbon rose inspired by the Empress Josephine’s famous garden – and delicate China and tea roses in shades of cream, pink and red.

Ancient varieties include Rosa ‘Gallica Officinalis’, a light crimson and deeply scented shrub brought to England from Persia by the Crusaders, and the highly scented ‘Quatre Saisons’, an autumn damask which was grown by the Romans.

Plan your visit

Flowering just once a year, the blooming season of this unique collection of roses attracts thousands of visitors. Here's some information to help you plan your visit at one of our busiest times of the year:

• Most of our visitors tend to arrive between 11am and 2pm. If you arrive at 10am you might find the grounds a little quieter, or if you arrive after 2pm, there’s still time to enjoy all that Mottisfont has to offer.
• If you have the flexibility, a weekday visit is generally quieter than a weekend, even during school holidays. If you can only visit over the weekend, Saturdays are usually less busy than Sundays.
• Please note that we charge peak admission between 10am and 3pm from 29 May - 2 July. Standard admission applies from 3pm onwards, including evening openings. National Trust members, Art Fund members and under 5s visit for free.

Making your way through the Rose Garden

The first walled garden is our recently revived Kitchen Garden, where two beds of 11 types of rose provide a modern introduction to the hundreds you’ll find beyond.

Walkway arbours are decorated with four varieties of climbing rose, based on Graham Stuart Thomas’s choice of companion roses. Hedging of Rosa rugosa ‘Rubra’ leads you into these arbours, mirroring the entrance to the central garden.

In the central garden, you’ll find deep box-lined borders full of rambling and climbing roses and clematis trained on the high brick wall behind. The main paths crossing the site converge on a central round pond and fountain, surrounded by eight clipped Irish yews.

Either side of this historic central pathway are two deep herbaceous flower beds boasting many of Graham Stuart Thomas’s favourite perennials, chosen for their structure, scent and wide colour palette.

Agapanthus, geraniums and peonies mingle with pinks, lilies, phlox and nepeta. The centres of the borders are a mass of soft blues, pinks and whites, whilst stronger yellows, oranges and dark pinks draw your eye along the length of the border.