English Rose Garden - September 2026 Garden Tour - David Austin Roses - Perennials -

Hi everyone, Darren here. I know it's been a while. I just want to show you some of the blooms in the garden. It's the 12th of September and I miss you all. It's been a while since I've had an update. We've had a really really hot summer, too hot to be gardening. I've just been hiding in the shade but now the weather's cooler and the roses are in bloom in abundance. Here we have Strawberry Hill, a beautiful David Austin rose with its loose petals and beautiful myrrh fragrance. You can grow this as a climber and you can also grow it as a quite tall shrub. It doesn't want to grow small. If you want a small shrub rose, don't buy Strawberry Hill but just look how beautiful it is. Isn't it gorgeous? I just need to damp my nose in one second. Oh my god, absolutely beautiful. Here we have a rose called Elizabeth which was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II. The first flush was amazing and then from there on in it's really struggled. Not very well at all, I must say. Rosa Iceberg always does amazingly well. I think this is the third flush this year. Incredible. Let me show you closer. Then we've got a new flush of roses on Scent from Heaven. Beautiful fragrance. Iceberg, no scent. Scent from Heaven. Fragrance from Heaven. Here's a closer look at Scent from Heaven. What a beautiful rose that is. Isn't it gorgeous? Then I've moved over some of my pots along this runway. Colours of very pale yellow, white and also the yellow from Absolutely Fabulous. That's Absolutely Fabulous. This is Rosa Vanessa Bell. Let me just have a smell. It's got like a myrrh fragrance. It smells quite nice actually. David Beckham rose has a nice smell. Not very strong but the petals don't last for more than two days. Yeah it's got a nice scent but very disappointing that it doesn't hold its petals. Very disappointing indeed. Then over here, let me come over, we have Absolutely Fabulous. It's a lot longer than David Beckham. It's got a nice glossy foliage. Lovely. Here we have Olivia Rose Austin. We've had quite a lot of rain lately for the last two weeks actually. My brother came to visit and nearly every single day it rained. Typical. That's got a nice fragrance and when I first planted this it had no fragrance for a few years. Can you believe? Everyone was saying oh it does smell nice. It's got a nice fragrance but I was like what is wrong with my nose? It just doesn't smell and when people would come to visit I'd say please put your nose in and smell. Can you smell the fragrance? And they couldn't so it wasn't just me. But now after several years it's started to have a nice scent. Lovely. Then over here we've Boscobel. Boscobel has a lovely fragrance but doesn't grow very strong in my garden. I've got two. One over here that's almost dying and this one is just doing just a little bit better. Let me get my nose in. Give it a scent test. Oh my god it smells of pear. Oh it smells fruity. It smells florally. Oh my god. Smells gorgeous. And then we've got some Princess Anne. Always blooms pretty well. Let me see if I can get my nose in just to do a smell test. One second. Hardly any fragrance I'm afraid today. Oh I know these are not roses but just look at these beautiful dahlias. And we've got a shield beetle here. Let me show you. Now if that doesn't make you cheerful I don't know what does. Reminds me of those sweets that we used to buy when we were kids. Rhubarb and crusted. I need to do some deadheading. I've not been out to deadhead for a while. Let me show you those yellow flowers a bit closer up. Okay I really should have filmed these a bit sooner. They're not looking the best. Sunny skies. This is a hybrid tea rose and it grows quite bushy and tall and it's a very strong grower in the garden. Now I don't think it has any fragrance but let me have a smell. One second. Yeah no fragrance. Or I should say very very light. Very light. Nothing to speak of. But just look how beautiful that is. Isn't it gorgeous? Truly truly beautiful isn't it? Just there beside the Luton's bench. I'll give you a quick pan of the garden. Look at the Irish yew. Oh my god they look amazing. I hope you've all had a great summer. I've truly missed you. This is how the garden is looking almost mid-September. Look at this. Oh a bobby dazzler. Munstead wood rose. I can smell it if I even put my nose in there. But let's do it anyway. Oh my gosh. That ladies and gentlemen is a regal rose if I have ever seen one in my life. This is just incredible. Truly how pretty does Strawberry Hill look there. Now that we've got a dry day today all of these are getting dead headed. I can't wait to get my snippers out. I am eager and raring to go. Let me see if I can find any flowers. Oh there's one here. This rose is called Gabriel Oak. Let's have a smell. Oh yeah that smells very true to an old rose fragrance. That smells absolutely incredible. Let's get the big nose in there again. One second. Oh that is beautiful truly. We are on a roll today. A roll. We have joie de vivre in English. It's called joy of life and look how beautiful that is. It's bloomed all summer but I've got to say the leaves are not looking very good at the moment. See I'll always be honest and they look horrendous I've got to say. Still blooming though. Blooming gorgeous. I'm not sure if any of you remember but I planted all of this up this year didn't I and the rockery alpine plants are still blooming. Look how lovely. I mean so ornate and small the flowers but look how beautiful they are. Now let me take you over here. The rebecchia has gave a glorious performance. Just look at the pop of colour it provides and then over here we've got some lovely blooms on Emily Bronte. Come closer Emily. Let me let me look at you and your all of your finery. See how glorious. I'm not sure if any of you have heard but Monty Don is packing up this year. He's not doing Gardener's World next year. So I was thinking maybe the BBC should come to Harwood Garden and I shall take over Monty's place. What a glorious succession. Can you imagine? I'm only joking by the way. Now I forget the name of these but they have bloomed all summer and there's no signs of them stopping. Look at all of these new buds. A real good plant to have in your garden. An unusual I mean reminds me of a strawberry slightly. The centre especially. Let me see if I can find the name of it. One second. I did have the um see I've got another one here. It's not done as good here. Let me see if I can find a label. Oh yeah it's called a this. That's what it's called. Valedia Burgundy. Really nice plant you know. It's done much better here than there though and I'm not sure why. But look how beautiful that is. Oh my boxes has been hitting hard this year and it looks horrendous. What a shame. Many many years it took for me to get the um hedge to this stage and lo and behold I've been hitting with what seems to be box blight. Or is it? I don't know. I was just going to take it all out but I'm seeing new growth. Can you see? So should I just leave it? See if it grows back? Maybe it's not box blight. Maybe it's the really harsh weather we've had. I don't know. I really don't know. And then of course we've got Rosa. Susan Williams Ellis. Named after the pottery founder Paul Miriam. Sorry about the blooms rocking left right and centre. Incredible fragrance. And then over there we've got the lovely lovely blooms of the Japanese anemone. Looking divine. And then of course we have Asa Sango Kaku. I'm still going Kaku for Sango Kaku. How divine. And let's go over here. We have a wedding cake tree and then we have more Japanese anemone in several shades of pink. And we've got more white as well. And of course here we have the apple tree and an Asa that I grew from seed. And let me just come back a bit. This is now the wisteria tree which climbed up over here and around there. And it took up all of the light since I've cut down the wisteria. The lovely pink pagoda sorbus tree has had more light and I can actually see it now. And it's not been strangulated by the wisteria. There's still some wisteria whips around. I need to get up on a step ladder and take those off. Looks quite messy. But yeah it's made the whole garden much more lighter and although I've got a lot of weeding to do I feel like the garden's benefited from the wisteria being cut down. I didn't want to do it but I feel like it was the best for all of the neighbouring plants and sometimes you have to make hard decisions. So yeah that is it I think. That is the garden mid, almost mid-September. Hope you're all doing great, happy and well and as always I send you lots and lots and lots of love. Oh and before I go I should show you this area as well. Which I haven't shown you for a while. This used to be a seating area where I never used to sit and now I've made it into my little Acer corner. Look at the colours here. Just so beautiful. And then we've got some some really nice fuchsia and a few, oh gosh, spider's web. Then we've got some smaller ones here. Yeah it's looking all right actually. Another wisteria here. There we go. That is the garden. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years. You don't realise how much it means to me and how much I appreciate you. Look at this liquid tree. And also for everyone who has contributed to the garden fund, the GoFundMe. It's really helped me so much this year with being able to afford all types of things to the garden. It's been a great help so thank you so so so much. Oh a butterfly just landed on me. I've got some roses here as well. This one is called Bring Me Sunshine. And then we've got a rose hiding here. I don't think I'm going to be able to get to it actually. This rose is called Rosa Eden. Can you see? Okay so I keep saying I'm going to go now but let me just show you one more thing before I go. Look at the jasmine that I planted this year. It's growing up. It's going all the way up there. Amazing. When it was in bloom it smelt incredible and I can't wait for next year. It's going to be even better. We've got another rose there. Twice in a blue moon. Lovely. Right anyone, anyway, look after yourselves and I'll give you more garden updates and yeah just take care. I'm sending you all the love in the world and many thanks.