Roses

They sum up everything that is glorious about an English garden. No wonder, with their memorable fragrance, stunning colours, gorgeous shapes and textures, and willingness to give pleasure all summer long in return for just a little tender care.

And what a choice. There’s a rose for every spot in the garden: Ramblers and climbers to enhance a dull fence or decorate a pergola, standards to add elegance to a pot by the front door, shrubs and bushes to add colour in borders, varieties for ground cover, even miniatures to grace a windowsill or patio.

Here at Toad Hall we have many dozens of different styles of roses, from traditional favourites to the latest introductions from award-winning premium rose growers.

A rose in full bloom stops you in your tracks. It steals your heart with its paper-delicate petals and lures you in with its heady, romantic scent. Once you're truly captivated it's hard to resist filling your garden with the sumptuous butter yellows, sugar-spun pink, graceful white and blood red petals of this queen of flowers.

We're in love with roses too, so we've got a variety in our garden centre to grace every spot in your garden.

Climbers and ramblers like 'New Dawn' and cream 'Alberic Barbier' scramble boisterously up trellises and wire supports to clothe walls in swathes of colour.

Shrub roses make striking centrepieces to a border: free-flowering and highly perfumed, they'll bloom from June till September. Apricot 'Buff Beauty' or deep pink 'Comte de Chambord' are good choices.

Patio roses like pale pink 'Gentle Touch' or pure white 'Diamond' are dainty, smaller shrubs bred for their ability to thrive in containers. Smothered in blooms, they're long-flowering and brilliantly colourful.

Ground cover roses spread out in low, graceful arches to cover the ground in dense foliage and flowers. The 'Flower Carpet' series come in gold, pink, white and scarlet.

Please ask the staff in our garden centre in Henley on Thames for more information and advice about growing roses.