Expert's Garden - The Roseman's Paradise

World-renowned rose breeder David Austin has been developing his wife’s wild garden into a colourful, scented idyl

- Lynn Keddie

Nestled at the end of a narrow lane in Shropshire is one of Britain’s most successful horticultural businesses, David Austin Roses. The gardens and nursery have been here for 48 years, and every summer hundreds of blooms burst into life, sharing their magnificent fragrance and colours of cream to apricot, yellow to deep red.

David Austin, or Mr A, as employees affectionately call him, lives next door and, even in his nineties, is still very hands on with keeping the place in order. For the past eight years, he has been redesigning his private garden.

“My wife, Pat, used to look after it, but when she passed away, I took it on,” he says. Pat, an artist, liked the garden to be wild. “She loved it, but I secretly thought it was a bit of a mess,” he recalls with a grin.