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The Garden House (Devon, England)

The destinations are beginning to blur but looking at the tour guide booklet, I see that we are now in Plymouth. Today, we visited two gardens designed by Keith Wiley.  The first is The Garden House , where Wiley worked as Head Gardener for 25 years (from 1978-2003). The 10-acre estate was purchased in the 1940s by former Eton schoolmaster Lionel Fortescue and his wife Katherine. It was formerly home to the  vicars of Buckland Monachronum. The Fortescue's renovated the gardens and ran a market garden business and raised cattle.  The remains of some of the original buildings in the vicarage still stand in the garden and serve as a romantic backdrop in the Walled Garden - I loved the way they had massed ferns together. Just stunning! Surrounding the walled garden and venturing out away from the house are more naturalistic plantings  - Today, the head gardener is Nick Haworth, who was previously head gardener at Greenway , which we visited earlier.  Keith Wiley lef...
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Veilchenblau Rose finishing up



The last of 'Veilchenblau' blooms are fading after a three-week stretch which is fairly typical. No more blooms on this one until next year.

This rose, first introduced in 1909 by J.C. Schmidt of Erfurt, Germany was an offspring of 'Crimson Rambler' which marked a milestone in climbing roses in 1893. 

'Veilchenblau' is one of my favorite roses. The flowers are spectacular, blooming in large clusters of a color variation that begins with dark reddish-violet buds that open dark and gradually fade to lilac. White streaks are also visible. This color shift occurs over the extended bloom time so you have all the different hues going on at once. The foliage is also quite nice, thornless (or almost thornless) and light green in color. It is said to have a scent of green apples but I do not notice this.


This time I'm growing the rose on a fence although it has room to stretch up over the gate. It can reach 12 feet. You can see random new shoots reaching for the sky. I trim these back to keep it closer to the fence but will allow growth to go over the arch.

In our old garden in Alabama, I grew it on an archway -



This is an extremely healthy rose, never blemished by disease. Last year, I had some lupine needing a home and at the last minute, plopped them in front of the fence. I was thinking they probably wouldn't work here but they looked nice in front of the rose along with Salvia 'Caradonna'. 


Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
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  1. Kris PetersonJuly 5, 2022 at 10:59 AM

    I can't even imagine having a rose that bountiful. The pairing with the Salvia is perfect.

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