Charles Quest-Ritson’s lecture includes advice on roses that flourish in a Mediterranean climate, rose nurseries, and facts on choosing and looking after roses. It illustrates many of the most beautiful Mediterranean-climate rose gardens, particularly in France, Italy and California, ranging from the Huntington Botanical Gardens in Pasadena to a private garden in Tourrettes-sur-Loup in the south of France, with occasional references to gardens in England such as Mottisfont Abbey’s walled garden of roses planted by Graham Stuart Thomas.

Charles is the author of The English Garden Abroad and he and his wife Brigid produced the RHS’s Encyclopedia of Roses. He has been a director of the National Rose Society and an advisor to the Hanbury Botanic Garden at La Mortola.

This talk, ‘Roses for Mediterranean Gardens’ was given at the Chelsea Physic Garden, London, in January 2015 to members and friends of one of our partner associations, Mediterranean Plants and Gardens