When the planners started the VSRG rose planting, they had a colour scheme in mind. This colour plan has been negated over the years, but there are vestiges of it left.
I am going to give you the plan as I remember it, but would be quite happy to have input from the longer serving members where my memory has broken down.
Firstly there was no colour plan for the beds within the Petals, only the intention that the taller roses would be in the outer beds, leading to small bushes in the center. There was to be a fountain in the center, where the large Gazebo now is. A power line runs down the center of avenue A/E to work the pump – but now serves the power points in the gazebo.
Let’s start with the arches and avenues.
The Arch and Avenue of Petal A/E were yellow, with Climbing Peace on the Arch and Friesia on the standards.
A/B was red, with Altissimo on the Arch and Marlena on the standards.
B/C was orange with Bettina on the Arch and Caid on the standards.
C/D was pink with Evangaline on the arch and Bridal Pink on the standards.
D/E was white with Pascali on the arch and Frances Phoebe on the standards
There were only five varieties of weeping standards throughout the Tudor. They were
Dorothy Perkins
Dortmund
Excelsa
Happy Times
Sander’s White
Of these, only Dortmund was repeat flowering.
Again, the festoons were within a colour plan. Petal A had pink and pink. Petal B had pink and white. Petal C had huge tree like Cecile Brunner . Petal D had red and red. Petal E had mauve and red(crimson).
Then there were the tripods.
Petal A was yellow, reflecting the Arch and avenue A/E, but as there were very few yellow Pillar Roses, orange was also used. There was Sutter’s Gold and I can remember Mrs Sam McGredy being on another, but cannot remember the others.
Petal B was red, reflecting the avenue A/B. Featured here was Danse de Sylphes, Paul’s Scarlet.
Petal C was white, with Summer Snow and Iceberg featuring heavily.
Petal D was pink, with Handel and Titian.
Petal E was the left-overs. It had a mixture of Bettina, Iceberg, Masquerade. It was originally meant to be white, but the original crew felt that the white suited better in Petal C, so they used what they had left over to fill the gaps in Petal E.
