Known for her love of roses, landscape and garden designer Jo Thompson uses them often in her garden designs, RHS Chelsea flower Show gardens and has over the years, developed a real flair for roses. To provide inspiration for David Austin’s customers, Thompson has created a series of ‘rose recipes‘ for their handbook, outlining a set of mixed plantings for a range of purposes, that can be easily replicated.
According to Thompson “In these recipes for mixed plantings, the colours and form of the rose are enhanced by a range of companions which have been brought together to suit a range of different purposes”.
Recipes include plants; for a pink mixed border, yellow border, north-facing border and a pollinator-friendly recipe (pictured). The latter features open-flowered, nectar-rich rose varieties are instrumental to attract wildlife.
“In this (pictured) cheerful tutti-frutti-coloured recipe, the semi-double, open blooms of Rosa ‘The Lark Ascending’ form part of a wildlife-friendly buffet table, a range of flower shapes offering easy access to different insects. Butterflies adore the small tubular flowers of some of the perennials here, large cushions of pollen are beloved of solitary bees, and the umbellifers of the achillea and selinum offer up nectar without any effort on the part of hoverflies and beetles”, explains Thompson.