In most cultures, the rose is the flower of love, and we have built gardens in its honour throughout history. The western fashion for such gardens began more than 2,000 years ago: first the Romans and later the crusaders brought back roses from the Middle East, and the Moors took them to Spain to use in courtyards, such as those at the Alhambra, in Granada.
Many historic houses and public parks have an area dedicated to hybrid teas in bright, clashing colours, planted with bare earth between them and all pruned to flower at one height. Over the past 20 years, however, their dated look, their susceptibility to black spot fungal disease and the fact that they flowered for just a few weeks have led many of us to fall out of love with roses.
There's good news for die-hard romantics, though: the rose garden is undergoing a revival, and this time it's organic and free-flowering. The design is either clean and contemporary, or as wild as Sleeping Beauty's castle. Leaders in this style of planting include the revamped gardens at Coughton Court, in Warwickshire, Alnwick Garden, in Northumberland, and even Sissinghurst Castle, in Kent, where Vita Sackville-West - a true pioneer - began to plant roses in unconventional ways back in the 1930s. They are being joined by a significant number of new ones, ready to push the boundaries.
The Gardens of the Rose at the Royal National Rose Society in St Albans, Hertfordshire, reopened earlier this month. First planted in the 1970s, they were made over in 2005, with the designer Julian Tatlock beginning a further revamp last year. The roses are now interplanted with grasses, foxgloves, salvias and red-hot pokers - a style that suits contemporary design tastes.
"The introduction of other plants into rose gardens gives them a fresh feel via height and texture," Tatlock says. "I love the combination of grasses and roses. The grasses soften the gloss of the leaves and inject movement."
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At RHS Garden Wisley, in Surrey, the new Bowes-Lyon Rose Garden is being built (visitors can watch the construction process) and will flower for the first time next year. Designed by Robert Myers, winner of several gold medals at Chelsea, it focuses on contemporary shapes and good environmental practice, which means you don't have to dedicate the area solely to roses - the traditional method to keep them disease-free. Yew and magnolia topiary gives clean structure, while curving paths sweep through beds of roses that will bloom among plants such as agapanthus, indigofera and sedum.
"Our aim is to create a contemporary rose garden that is at the cutting edge in both design and content," says David Jewell, floral ornamental superintendent at Wisley. "We're looking to have a richly biodiverse plant content because it will encourage beneficial predators and reduce the need for chemicals."
At Mottisfont Abbey, near Romsey, in Hampshire, Campanula persicifolia is planted between the bushes. A more urban look can be achieved with grasses or dark perennials such as Sedum telephium 'Purple Emperor'.
This approach seems to have worked in the 350ft rose border at the Trentham estate, in Staffordshire, which flowered for the first time last year. It combines roses and insect-attracting plants, such as the structural Verbena bonariensis and the fluffy-textured Phacelia tanacetifolia. The gardeners have not sprayed and report a clean bill of health. They have used English roses: modern varieties that are bred to be disease-resistant and repeat-flowering, with the romantic appearance of an old rose.
"Disease resistance is an important part of the modern rose garden," says Michael Marriott, technical manager at David Austin Roses, which breeds the English varieties. Marriott has designed rose gardens all over the world, including the one at Trentham. "Why plant things that get sick? The organic rose movement favours the most recently bred varieties because they don't require spraying with chemicals."
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Using these superhealthy bushes, which flower repeatedly throughout the summer, means companion plants aren't vital if you are planning to raise the roses with minimal chemical intervention - ideal for a roses-only garden that's bang up to date.
An extreme example is the new Crossroads garden at Schloss Marihn, in northeastern Germany, which was designed by Marriott and will flower for the first time this year. Here, only two pink English varieties are used to cover an area of 13,000 sq ft. The clean contemporary design of four square beds, surrounded by standard trees and a hornbeam hedge, contains 1,500 'Brother Cadfael' and 1,500 'Scepter'd Isle'.
"This has never been done before," Marriott says. "The roses are so close that no soil will be visible. Both are known for their disease resistance, so the idea is that we won't have to spray."
At the Savill Garden, in the Royal Landscape within Windsor Great Park, Berkshire, another contemporary rose-only garden is being created for 2010. The focus of Andrew Wilson's design is sensory experience: repeat flowerers of intense colour and scent, such as the deep carmine 'Alfred Colomb', will be planted beside grasses beneath a "floating" raised walkway, where the visitor will be surrounded with scent.
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Roses are equally at home in naturalistic gardens, where wild species, usually confined to hedgerows, are added to borders and garden varieties are allowed to run up trees and into other plants, rather than being made to behave.
In the two-acre garden at Lime Kiln House, in Claydon, Suffolk, there is a ban on pruning - regular species and ramblers have been left to their own devices, and many flower as tall as trees. This "rosarium" was created by the late Humphrey Brooke, secretary of the Royal Academy of Arts. Since his death in 1988, the garden has been neglected and closed to the public, but Kathy Kalafat and Tim Young, the new owners, are restoring it; it is due to reopen next year.
Ian and Susie Pasley-Tyler are seeking to enhance the romantic natural look by letting their roses ramble up trees at Coton Manor, their home in Northamptonshire. At least 12 varieties are established, with more being added annually.
The flowers also find their way up the trees at Zena Grant's Kypp Cottage, near Biddenden, Kent, weaving in and out of other plants such as clematis. "I let my roses scamper wherever they can," Grant says. "I don't prune them because I prefer the garden to look full and natural." The majority are ramblers and shrubs. "I have two hybrid teas," Grant says, "but those were given as presents and I don't prune them."
Kypp, which is open regularly through the summer for the National Gardens Scheme, is a semi-woodland garden, so many, such as the shrub rose 'Fantin Latour' (which reaches 8ft), 'Jacqueline Du Pré' and several types of rugosa, forgo full sun. "People are amazed at how many I have in semi-shade," Grant says, "but not all need sun. The rose has a wild character, so she seems at home in among the trees."
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It's a far cry from the formality of the Moorish gardens of Andalusia, but shows the rose will fit in anywhere.
Suppliers: David Austin Roses (01902 376300, davidaustinroses.com); Wych Cross (01342 822705, wychcross.co.uk); Apuldram Roses (01243 785769, apuldramroses.co.uk)
Gardens to visit: Coughton Court (01789 762435, nationaltrust.org.uk); Alnwick Garden (01665 511350, www.alnwickgarden. com); Sissinghurst Castle (01580 710701, nationaltrust.org.uk); RHS Garden Wisley (0845 260 9000, rhs.org.uk); Mottisfont Abbey (01794 340757, nationaltrust.org.uk); the Royal National Rose Society (01727 850461, rnrs.org.uk); Trentham Estate (01782 646646, trenthamleisure.co.uk); Schloss Marihn (schloss-marihn.de); Savill Garden (theroyallandscape.co.uk); Coton Manor (01604 740219, cotonmanor.co.uk); Kypp Cottage (01580 291480, ngs.org.uk)