As autumn settles and the days take on a crisp, silvery light, the garden begins to quieten. Blooms fade, leaves fall, and roses offer their final gesture of the year. Their hips, glowing in reds and soft oranges, brighten bare stems like small lanterns and bring warmth to the stillness of the season. These fruits have long carried a nostalgic charm, recalling winter walks, simple festive gatherings and the comforting traditions of Christmas. Rose hips are easy to collect. Choose firm, brightly coloured hips and snip them with a short length of stem attached. A gentle rinse is enough to prepare them for craft or cookery.

As the garden rests and daylight draws in, Christmas becomes a lovely moment to surprise the gardener in your life with something thoughtful. The right gift can brighten the quieter months and carry the promise of beauty when spring returns and the roses wake again.

A living wall has a way of transforming a space, turning a simple surface into a quiet theatre of petals, scent and shifting light. When English Roses form the foundation, the display becomes generous and enduring. Their repeat blooms, soft colours and naturally graceful habit bring depth and character to any vertical space, whether it is a boundary fence, a warm house wall or a tucked-away corner that needs a little life.

The King’s Rose is unlike anything we’ve bred before. With its soft stripes, gentle fragrance and natural charm, it marks a distinctive new direction for the David Austin^® collection. Created in support of The King’s Foundation, this rose brings together beauty, purpose and a quiet nod to tradition.

Soft light spills across a quiet garden, where the hum of bees threads through the still air and petals tremble with the morning dew. There is a hush here, a sense that time itself slows, inviting the senses to wander and the spirit to rest. In these moments, the perfume of roses becomes more than a fragrance. It is at once familiar and fleeting, a memory, a mood, a gentle companion to the day, recalling childhood gardens, evening walks and the warmth of the sun. Among our English Roses, some are distinguished not only by their beauty but by the generosity of their perfume.

When it comes to creating an interesting and harmonious garden, the way you arrange your plants can make all the difference. English roses, with their exquisite forms and captivating fragrances, are the perfect example. Planting them in clusters of three, five or more, particularly when you choose the same variety, is one of the simplest and most effective ways to bring both balance and character to your outdoor space.

For many gardeners, the first sight of a bare root rose can be a surprise. Without its leaves or blooms, it arrives looking rather modest: a handful of roots, a few sturdy canes, and a curious little swelling where the two meet. Yet within this unassuming bundle lies everything needed to grow a strong, healthy rose that will flower for years to come.

Planting a bare root rose is a gesture of quiet confidence, a small act of faith in the turning of the seasons. It asks the gardener to trust in time, in patience, and in the rose’s own ancient rhythm. Long before plastic pots and glossy labels, this was how roses were grown and shared. Lifted carefully from the fields in autumn, their roots bare and bundled, they travelled lightly, ready to settle into new gardens and new soil.

As World Mental Health Day reminds us, the way we care for our minds can be as natural and nourishing as tending a garden. Among plants, soil, and sky, we find a space that allows both body and spirit to rest and renew. Few experiences embody this better than the simple act of planting a rose. It asks for patience, attentiveness, and trust in the rhythm of life, and it rewards us with beauty that feels deeply earned.

By the end of September, the rose garden is changing. The exuberance of summer is fading, and the rhythm of the season is slowing. Many English Roses are setting hips now, their once-constant flowers giving way to clusters of glowing fruits. Yet the borders need not feel diminished. With the right companions, roses can be framed and supported so that the garden still sings with colour, texture and grace well into autumn.

Some roses seem to hold a story in their petals, and Rosa Penelope Lively^® (Ausb18a15) is one of them. Named for the much-loved writer, this English Shrub Rose carries both elegance and quiet depth, a living tribute to a voice that has shaped contemporary literature.

Guest blog by Helen Cross - Author, Journalist, Presenter, and School Gardening Champion. At the start of every gardening session with a new group of children, I always ask them what flower, fruit, or vegetable they would like to grow in their school garden. You might be surprised, but over the last five years, three or four out of every ten children have told me they want to grow roses.

Few roses are held in such regard as Gertrude Jekyll^® (Ausbord). Valued for its rich, mid-pink blooms and one of the strongest Old Rose fragrances in cultivation, it has become a familiar name among gardeners. Yet it is not only the scent that secures its place. This is a rose with structure, presence and the ability to draw planting together. It offers more than a single season’s beauty. It gives shape to the garden and settles easily among other plants, whether used in formal arrangements or in looser, more naturalistic schemes.