The 'bones' of the National Rose Garden can only be experienced in winter!

It's the middle of winter, and, at the National Rose Garden at Woolmers there is hardly a single bloom anywhere to be seen. All the roses are sleeping in their winter dormancy. Even so, if you are visiting Woolmers, which, by the way, is open right through the winter) it's well worth taking a walk in the Rose Garden.

I think when everything is wintery, (sometimes it is even so covered in frost that it looks for all the world like snow) that's when the 'bones' of the garden are easier to see - it's when the whole design is most visibly apparent. And there is always a lovely veiw to take in over the surrounding country-side and even the hawthorn hedges surrounding field seem more starkly obvious.

This is a trememdously busy time in the Rose Garden - possibly the busiest time of the entire year. It's the time of major pruning of the roses and also the time they must be fertilised and then mulched. The mop-top Acasias are trimmed back hard in order to keep them in shape, and all the hedges must be cut.

And all this hard work so that, come October, we can marvel at the millions of roses which will then be getting ready to burst into full glorious bloom!