RHS Garden Rosemoor is a public display garden run by the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

in north Devon, England. Rosemoor is about south of

Great Torrington Great Torrington (often abbreviated to Torrington, though the villages of Little Torrington and Black Torrington are situated in the same region) is a market town in Devon, England. Parts of it are sited on high ground with steep drops down to ...

on the A3124 road to Exeter. It is surrounded by over of woodland with the

River Torridge The River Torridge is a river in Devon in England; it rises near Meddon. The river describes a long loop through Devon farming country where its tributaries the Lew and Okement join before meeting the Taw at Appledore and flowing into the Bristo ...

running along the western border. Features include a rose garden with about 2,000 rose plants; an arboretum; herb, fruit and vegetable gardens; and an

alpine house A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic conditions are grown.These s ...

. A variety of

clematis ''Clematis'' is a genus of about 300 species within the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. Their garden hybrids have been popular among gardeners, beginning with ''Clematis'' × ''jackmanii'', a garden standby since 1862; more hybrid cultivars ...

introduced as part of the RHS Bicentenary Plant Collection is named after the garden.

History

The

Rolle Canal The Rolle Canal (or Torrington Canal) in north Devon, England, extends from its mouth into the River Torridge at Landcross 6 miles southwards to the industrial mills and corn-mills at Town Mills, Rosemoor, Great TorringtonLost ca ...

(completed in 1827) terminated at a complex of large

lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone ( calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is : CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction can take p ...

s at Rosemoor (known then as "Rowe's Moor"). The lime kiln complex, designed by James Green, survives in a ruinous condition in a working compound at the gardens, inaccessible to the public. George Braginton, the manager and later a major

leasehold A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a l ...

er of the canal, moved into the Rowe's Moor estate some time before 1851. On the death in 1931 of Robert Horace Walpole, the fifth

Earl of Orford Earl of Orford is a title that has been created three times. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1697 when the naval commander Admiral of the Fleet Edward Russell was made Earl of Orford, in the County of Suffolk. He was c ...

, the estate became the property of his daughter,

Lady Anne Berry Lady Anne Sophia Berry (née Walpole, 11 December 1919 – 18 September 2019) was an English-New Zealand horticulturist who founded Rosemoor Garden. She offered the garden to the Royal Horticultural Society in 1988. In 1990 she married Bob Ber ...

(then Palmer). She created the original garden of in 1959, and developed it over a 30-year period. The garden developed in a naturalistic style, with sweeping lawns and curving borders set out as the plantings expanded. There was no masterplan, but designer John Codrington who later became a life member of the

(RHS), provided drawings, in particular for the early development of warmer sheltered areas near the house. The garden was first opened to the public in 1967, under the

National Gardens Scheme The National Garden Scheme opens privately owned gardens in England, Northern Ireland, Wales, and the Channel Islands on selected dates for charity. It was founded in 1927 with the aim of "opening gardens of quality, character and interest to th ...

.Brent Elliott: The Royal Horticultural Society, A History 1804-2004. Published by Phillimore & Co. Ltd. . A small nursery was started in 1979. Both the garden and nursery were noted for rare and unusual plants. By the 1980s, the garden was attracting significant numbers of visitors.Bailes 2008, p.36: "Less than 10,000 a year prior to the Society's arrival" Rosemoor gazebo 23106

In 1988 Lady Palmer gave the garden to the RHS, together with an additional of land. In the mid 1990s of woodland surrounding the site, mainly coniferous forest, was added to the garden, securing the land bordering the garden from unwanted change, providing opportunities to blend the garden into its surrounding landscape and also providing it with a range of additional experiences for visitors.Bailes 2008, p. 36 Christopher Bailes, curator of Rosemoor Garden, described the garden in 2008 thus: Today Rosemoor Garden covers and it includes a visitor centre, a plant centre, a shop, a restaurant and the Wisteria tearoom. There is also a reference library, located near the entrance to the garden, which provides a small collection of books on practical gardening, garden design, botanical art, garden history, wildlife gardening, plant hunting, as well as a selection of the major gardening magazines to browse through. In 2019 the garden received 255,861 visitors.

References

Sources

* Bailes, Christopher – Rosemoor Garden – Two Decades On (A Retrospective...). In: ''The Gardener's Journal'', Christchurch NZ, , issue 3, August 2008, pp.35–42. *

External links

* {{Royal Horticultural Society Royal Horticultural Society Botanical gardens in England Gardens in Devon Woodland gardens