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To some extent the whole garden could be said to be a trial area as one of the aims of the Society is to establish which plants grow well in Lakeland conditions.

Over the years the LHS has also been involved in formal trials of such herbaceous plants as poppies, delphinium, agapanthus, asters and others for the 'Gardening Which?' magazine and has published reports on these in its own journal.

The Society has conducted and published the results of its own trials on phlox, viola and strawberries and is, at present, running trials on David Austin roses.

Trial of David Austin Roses

In the Summer of 2001 Michael Marriott of David Austin Roses gave a talk to the Society after which he looked round the gardens. He was aware of the traditional view that 'roses don't do well in the Lake District' and offered to provide a selection of roses to test the hypothesis.

In November 2001 we planted forty bushes, (two each of twenty varieties) which had been selected as suitable for our conditions.

To date our main problem has been damage caused to some (but not all) of the varieties by deer and rabbits. During the winter of 2003/4 we have replaced two of the original varieties (Blythe Spirit and The Alexandra Rose) which had not recovered sufficiently from the animal damage.

Our trial of David Austin's English roses is continuing in 2006. During the past Winter we have moved one third of the existing plants within the bed and planted three new varieties. This means that half the trial plants will be newly planted in ground where roses have been growing for the past four years. This will allow us to test the belief that roses will not establish successfully in these conditions. In this test, we have recruited a new ally in the form of a micorrhizal fungal mixture. The fungi attach themselves to the rose's root system and this is claimed to extend the rose's ability to absorb nutirents.

If you would like to see the roses, they are in one of the Trial Beds above the paddock.

And yes, roses CAN be grown in the Lake District!!