ROSE-TINTED SPECTACLE
We might think of roses as quintessentially English, but many of our most treasured varieties were bred in Luxembourg, as this old rectory reveals in grandiose style
An old rectory garden showcases many varieties of rose in grandiose style
Peering through the iron railings at Françoise and Paul Maas’s garden at the old rectory in Weiler-la-tour, south of Luxembourg, it is clear that something special is concealed beyond. Spanning a long path, roses trained over arches seem to shine like pink dots out of the deep shade cast by tall and rounded yews. Wedged between boundary walls, the front garden is long and narrow, its shape arising from the plot’s previous use. Until it was demolished in 1880, this is where the church stood and what was once the nave is now a verdant, highly scented flowering corridor.
Draped over metal arches spanning the natural stone path, the climbing rose Rosa ‘Alchymist’ sets the tone for the scene in front of the house. Here, a tall blush-pink R. ‘Fantin-latour’ thrives next to a magenta R. ‘de Resht’, surrounded by red valerian, rose campion, peonies and hellebores. With acanthus growing against the 18th-century rectory’s walls, the effect is a relaxed and rustic mix of flowers and foliage.
This is just one of many exquisite rose gardens in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. We might think of roses as quintessentially English garden flowers but at the end of the 19th century, rose lovers and nurseries from Russia to Argentina, the USA to China and all points in between looked to this European duchy for inspiration. For over a hundred years, up until the
Second World War, their rose growers bred more than 400 varieties and shipped millions of roses around the world. Three large breeders led the field: Soupert & Notting, Ketten Brothers and Gemen & Bourg and we have them to thank for some truly beautiful varieties to be found in our gardens today.
While wisteria adorns one side of the rectory, a magnificent repeat-flowering climbing rose ‘Lawinia’ syn. ‘Lavinia’ flourishes on the other. Its large flowers contrast with the dainty blush-white clusters of R. ‘Venusta Pendula’ growing in the small courtyard to one side. These, together with the single, deep pink blooms of ‘Rosarium Uetersen’, seem to sprout magically from the high, ivy-covered boundary wall. A variegated wedding cake dogwood (Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’) picks up the theme of light and shade that runs through the garden, and an ornate metal table and chairs underline its enchanting atmosphere.
The rectory was built in 1746 when Luxembourg was part of the Hapsburg Empire – a time of economic and cultural prosperity. With its symmetrical arrangement of shuttered windows and a central front door, it has a modest elegance in keeping with the status of an 18th-century parish priest. Françoise and Paul Maas moved here in the 1970s and have approached its restoration with sensitivity. “We have merely ‘clothed’ the house with vegetation and in the garden our aim has been to continue the work of the clergymen who lived here,” Françoise says.
Being able to respond to and simply enhance the mood of a place is an art. When Françoise first set foot in this garden, it seemed to be in a deep sleep,
and when you walk through the house and open the ornate timber back door, it seems as if the garden has just woken up. The scene that greets you is like a 17thcentury Dutch painting. Lush, curvaceous boxwood hedges line a gravel path, squeezing it together so it is reduced to a black line. Towering above it, a magnificent white-flowering ‘Kiftsgate’ rose leaves hardly any room for a person to slip through. Lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis) and peonies complete a garden picture where time does indeed seem to have stood still.
After the narrowness and shade of the front garden, the back garden seems larger and lighter. A number of old rose bushes are growing between the grid of the boxwood hedges. Françoise was introduced to roses by her cousin and has not looked back since. ‘Tour de Malakoff ’ – one of her favourites because of its magenta blooms – thrives here, as do other modern and heritage varieties such as ‘Felicitas’ and ‘Charles de Mills’. Climbing roses ‘Madame Caroline Testout’ and Madame Alfred Carrière’, supported by a simple metal frame, bridge one of the paths, adding a vertical element to the garden.
A wide flower border, divided by an antique metal railing, runs parallel to the rectory, with perennials and a patio on the house side and a mixture of old and new roses flourishing on the other. They include the highly fragrant pink centifolia rose ‘Petite de Holland’, white semi-double ‘Maria Mathilda’, a striking variegated Rosa gallica ‘Versicolor’ syn. R. mundi, white to pink-flowering ‘Aspirine’ and one of the earliest Luxembourg roses, ‘La Noblesse’. With billowing, white alpine knotweed (Persicaria alpina) as a background to the roses, and with bearded irises and cranesbills weaving through the planting, the effect is highly romantic.
Often when Françoise is tending to her flowers, Paul plays baroque music on the harpischord. “It’s so lovely to hear when you are in the garden and the windows are open,” she says. Strolling, dreaming and enjoying the delicate scent of the roses in the summer garden are the order of the day. Even if the rose breeders’ nurseries have long since disappeared, their roses live on. A love of roses seems to be in the DNA of the Luxembourg people and their enthusiasm is infectious.
Even if the rose breeders’ nurseries have long since disappeared, their roses live on