RHS Garden Rosemoor — Attraction in Torridge District

REVIEW: QUEEN MOTHER'S ROSE GARDEN AND SHRUB ROSE GARDEN. AUGUST UPDATE- THE HOT GARDEN. PLUS GLOW 2023 I read the other day that this is, a good year for roses, the reason being that rose aphids have had a bad time, so I grabbed my camera gear and headed for Rosemoor. Both gardens as you may have guessed are formal gardens, but I have always been just as happy with formal is informal gardens. Both gardens are fantastic, the Queen Mothers garden has some beautiful white climbers and the Shrub garden uses ropes to trail the climbing roses. Rosemoor has a great team of guys and girls who inform me that there are over 2000 roses in these gardens, having spent time photographing them I have no reason to doubt this. "Less is more", if you want to take your photography forward, if you find a part of the garden you really like allocate time to shoot, stick with it. This will give much better results than trying to cover everything. In summary both of these gardens are vibrant, rich and spectacularly beautiful. THE HOT GARDEN. I am very grateful to two previous reviewers "NIci" (September 21) and "Rob Hobbs" (August 21) who have prompted me to visit the hot garden. Do check out their reviews, superb images from both of them, very well done and thank you. This garden is pure colour sensory overload, superb, it is an extraordinary garden. For the first time I visited the "Glow" evening. Talking to the gardeners and staff they seemed quite modest about the display but it was superb. A huge display on the main lawn, individual garden sections were illuminated and the lake was fantastic. For me though the woodland walk was extraordinary the RHS team illumined the whole wood to the West of the garden (approx 4 acres). A superb and breath...

A very beautiful place. Great for gardening inspiration and a good, interesting range of plants to buy - now including house plants too.

There's a lot of shelter in the garden too so it's not the end of the world if it rains, also the friendly visitor services team will lend you a brolly if you get caught out.

It is wheelchair accessible, wheelchairs are available along with trampers that you need to ring ahead to book (these are mobility scooters).

There are some fantastic woodlands walks on both sides of the garden, I particularly like the upper woodland walk on lady Anne's original side of the garden. You can completely get away from the crowds on busy days.

I've been visiting the garden for four years and always see something new! The vegetable garden is impressive, full of planting techniques and ideas and the produce is used in Rosemoor jams, chutneys, honey (available in the shop) and in the restaurant.

There are three places to eat in summer, the main restaurant at the entrance (quite a busy place but serving big meals), the shepherd's rest (a small horse-box type vendor serving coffees and small snacks and the Wysteria tea room on the original side by lady Anne's garden (closed in winter); you can also bring your own food and have a picnic.

Dogs are not permitted in the garden and there isn't much shaded parking anymore so I would not advise you bring them.

There's bicycle parking, it's on the 5B to Exeter bus route and it's also possible to walk to Torrington, just be careful along the road and then use the commons' footpath by the river and up.

Generally a very peaceful, inspirational garden with lots of events going on sometimes on a...

We had never visited an RHS Garden, Wisley is a 250 mile round trip and until recently we had not heard of Rosemoor which is near to Great Torrington in North Devon. Anyway, we decided to have a look and arrived at opening time (10:00 a.m.). A very nice lady greeted us and gave us a map of the gardens and so we set off to explore it all. Cost for non members is £15.85 without Gift aid. There are so many differently themed gardens, Rose, Model, Winter, Hot, Cold, Stream, Woodland, Exotic, Forest, Mediterranean etc. All were beautifully filled with flowers and shrubs of every description. There are also parklands and an arboretum on the other side of the road which bisects Rosemoor. There is an underpass so you don't have a main road to cross. There are numerous benches dotted around the whole site. There are several restaurants and cafes available with inside or outside seating. There are several steps in places especially just after the entrance but there are also wheelchair friendly ramps, so that those with mobility scooters can access most areas. There are also Fruit orchards and vegetable gardens and woodland walks. A Plant centre and gift shop is on site as are plenty of accessible toilets. Plant center is a bit pricey at £2 - £3 more than a garden center for a plant but at least they are guaranteed for 5 years. Altogether a very professional and enjoyable offering and well worth a visit for any...