Brodsworth Hall going back to the future with Victorian-inspired rose display

A total of 50 bare root species roses have been planted over the past few weeks in the English Heritage-run site’s Rose Dell. The flowers are expected to bloom around June.

Head gardener Dan Hale said the plants have deliberately been chosen to hark back to the Victorian era.

“It is a continuation of us restoring the Rose Dell,” he said.

"All of the roses are ones you could have found in the 19th Century and early 20th Century.

"We have restored the garden as much as we can back to the 1860s when the garden was redesigned by the then head gardener Samuel Taylor.

"We have got five project areas we are working on in the grounds and the Rose Dell is just one of them.

"There is so much going on.”

Among the other projects on the grounds is the restoration of Victorian stone walls, with volunteers being taught dry stone walling techniques to assist with the work. That work will resume in January.

The Rose Dell, which sits next to the site’s Rose Garden, was created after about three-quarters of an acre of self-sown trees and dense ivy were cleared in the winter of 2004.

New trees were planted such as copper beech, hornbeam and oaks and underplanted with a wide variety of species rose.

To assist with the growing process of the new set of bare root species roses over the winter months, Dan and his colleagues have used Mycorrhizal Fungi as a stimulant.

Those that have been planted for the new display are Rosa fedtschenkoana; Rosa glauca; Rosa eglanteria; Rosa elegantula persetosa; Rosa x dupontii and Rosa virginiana, as well as Rosa suffulta and Rosa sancta.