Scent of reminiscence

The garden, part of the Hampton Court Palace dates back to 1514 and was built by Thomas Wolsey, Henry the VIII’s Chancellor. It was here where I had my brush with varied roses, named after eminent people of the days of yore. One such rose is named after Shakespeare. With its glorious crimson petals, it soaked up the numbness that surrounds any tragedy like a dark noose.

It originated from Britain and it was introduced to the world in 1987. Blessed with a scent that is sweet and becalming, it now grows all over the world, though it is susceptible to rust and blackspot. The creation enthralls you with its dark red and purple floral abundance and a massive gift of tiny petals quilted and arranged around a beady eye.

Here, you will also meet the very famous Peace Rose which was hailed by the world with joy when it was created towards the end of World War II. This rose sparkles in its rouge pink and lemon yellow blooms. Raised by a French man named Francois Meilland in 1935, it was sent to America, Germany and Italy. While in Germany it got the name Gloria,  in America it was named Peace. Such was its beauty, that by 1951 over
one million bushes had been sold in England alone!

The Hampton Court rose garden which I entered through a tall, stately gate, thickly patterned with bottle green ivy, had a large square, filled with the Peace Rose. It is here I found a generous dark pink stunner named after Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), one of England’s most well known garden-designers, artists as well as a writer and photographer. She gave the world her marvellous theories, which enchanted and enriched the lives of garden lovers with decorative gardening. The Gertrude Jekyll rose fades to a pale pink at the edges, is sturdy and grows to a height of three metres. The rose garden also houses a crimson rose called Jude the Obscure, name of a novel by Thomas Hardy. It is a shrub rose that was introduced in 1995 and has a delicious, fruity scent and an apricot colouring, ringed with creamy white petals. You can also spot the Rosa Mundi here, another heart-stopper. It is a shrub rose that has stripes of ice white and dark pink painting its petals as if dressed up for a photo shoot. So if you are in love with roses, come here and let the spell and magic of this old, scented flower be cast upon you.