We built our home, Parterre, twenty-three years ago this month. Can’t believe it’s been that long!! When creating the gardens we kept in mind that this would be a summer garden–late June through October, not a spring garden. And what says summer better than roses?? As a novice garden, I shied away from having a rose garden specifically and focused on the use of this jewel as a landscape feature and design punctuation. Please join me on a stroll through Parterre’s gardens.

The Orangerie (a surprise Christmas gift from my husband when we were just breaking ground) is the centerpiece of the property. Of course it had to be draped with roses, encircling the antique leaded glass windows.

Looking across the lawn from the Orangerie to the pergola, where a pair of large stone planters placed either side of the steps show off a bamboo tuteur of David Austin ‘Charles Darwin.’

David Austin’s ‘Falstaff,’ in delicious merlot red, lines the wall to the Cutting Garden and provides a breathtaking scene as you move from the back courtyard to the interior garden rooms.

Designed just for roses, the latest addition to Parterre, a tall, 20′ long lattice, is the west-facing wall of the Cutting Garden. Here, the aroma of ‘Deelish,’ ‘Sweet Mademoiselle,’ climbing ‘Peace,’ and ‘Pink Enchantment’ remind you that summer at Parterre is all about roses.

Just a peek inside the Cutting Garden, where many rose bushes have supplanted other plants (like peonies, which now have their own bed across from the rose chain). Here are David Austin’s ‘Boscobel’ and ‘Ancient Mariner’ cavorting in their cobblestone-edged bed.

When designing, I reflected back on my original wish list for our gardens. One detail was an arch (which could be covered in roses). A perfect spot presented itself, the wrought iron arch holding up the lantern that lights the entrance to the back courtyard.

But the star of the season is the 82 ft. long rose chain planted with ‘Crown Princess Margaretha’ (feature image above). It was actually David Austin, Jr., who suggested this specific rose when he visited Parterre during the Newport Flower Show many years ago. It’s such a yummy shade of warm apricot (a bit like an Aperol spritz).

I love the way it dresses up our back courtyard, which we drive in and out of many times a day.

But also the way the roses cluster, or as the Austin catalog says, “are produced with exceptional freedom and regularity” which makes each individual bush look so full.

And in the late afternoon, the setting sun filters through the trees, casting a romantic glow.

The back drop to this rose chain is a glorious weeping European beech. I always welcome any opportunity to quote a friend who once said, “if Newport were a tree, it would be a beech.”

A big surprise awaited me after the horticulture judging at the Newport Flower Show last weekend…our ‘Carding Mill’ shrub rose (David Austin) won Best Rose in the Show.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July!