Every year, some eight billion roses are grown and sold in the UK – it’s the nation’s favourite flower.
As such, the start, this Saturday, of the five-week Rose Festival at RHS Garden Rosemoor in Devon (which runs until July 22) is most welcome; the collection there is the largest in the country and includes 2,000 roses across 200 varieties, hues and scents.
To celebrate the start of the festival, we've collected some superb pictures of previous year – to entice you along if you can, and to give you a flavour of what you're missing if you can't make it.
There will be tours, expert advice and a floral-themed craft market; new this year is a planting of Rosa pax, a hybrid musk rose launched in 1918 to commemorate the end of the First World War.
For more details visit www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/rosemoor
All the 2018 Chelsea Flower Show medal winners
The RHS has announced the gold medallists for the 2018 Chelsea Flower Show.
37 surprising, unusual and useful things to look out for at the Chelsea Flower Show
Whether you're heading to RHS Chelsea or not, don't miss our look at the sights and sounds that you might
The true rose of St Valentine isn't actually red
In 1971 a Catalan rose-breeder called Pere Dot introduced a little pink Polyantha rose called San Valentin. Charles Quest-Ritson explores.
Credit: Rita Coates
The mysterious case of the Frankfurt rose
-
If the future of Ferrari is electric vehicles, then it is our future tooIt's widely believed that Ferrari will unveil its first electric car this year. It's the signal that the internal combustion era is coming to an end.
-
Gaze over Cap Ferrat in this four-bedroom French villaIgnore the wind and the rain. Imagine yourself in this hillside home with some of the best views the Mediterranean can offer.
