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
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