The 'Rose Labyrinth' of Coughton Court, where 200 varieties come together in this world-renowned garden in Warwickshire

‘It was always my grandmother’s wish,’ says Magnus Birch Throckmorton, of his ancestral home, Coughton Court by the River Arrow in Warwickshire, ‘that we would move in and look over the house and garden.’ The 25-acre gardens had been made by his grandmother and mother almost 30 years ago, embellishing ‘the lovely bones of the Tudor house, walls, two churches and lake’ with colourful planting. Yet Mr Birch Throckmorton and his wife, Imogen, knew nothing about gardens when they arrived in 2017.

‘I was a wine merchant and Imogen worked in London.’ Since then, he adds, ‘Imogen has worked alongside the very able team of gardeners and I provide some muscle occasionally. Now, we love the beauty and historic atmosphere of the house and gardens, rather than feeling overwhelmed by the responsibility.’ As a result, they are ready to take back the running of the whole property from the National Trust from February next year.

When the Trust took on the house in 1946, the Throckmorton family retained control of the 17-acre formal garden. They planted an extensive orchard containing local heritage apples and fruit and a superb vegetable garden. Some of the daffodils, in The Daffodil Garden, had been bred by an American offshoot of the family, Dr Tom D. Throckmorton of Iowa. He named 50 cultivars and devised a colour-coding system that is now used by the RHS. Two thousand bulbs were planted in 2005, featuring 20 Throckmorton cultivars, although some of them haven’t thrived in the British climate.

The garden’s star attraction, however, is undoubtedly the Rose Labyrinth, set within a 1½-acre walled garden and created in 1996 by Mr Birch Throckmorton’s mother, Christina Williams. She trained at the Chelsea Physic Garden and made the garden as a birthday present for her mother, Clare McClaren-Throckmorton, affectionately known as ‘Mrs T’. It contains 200 varieties of rose, including a large selection of ramblers and climbers, Damasks, Albas, Teas, Noisettes, plus more modern blooms. In 2006, the Rose Labyrinth became the first British garden to be given the prestigious Award for Garden Excellence from the World Federation of Rose Societies.

‘Christina still masterminds the design,’ says her daughter-in-law. ‘Grandma had the vision, however, so it was very much a mother-and-daughter partnership.’

When you walk through the stout oak door in the high walls into the rose labyrinth, you’re hit by the scent of roses and waves of toning colour. Meandering paths draw one on through the carefully chosen plantings — one of the great strengths of the garden is the way the roses have been complemented with other plants. The silver foliage of lamb’s ears, Stachys byzantina, and Artemisia ludoviciana ‘Valerie Finnis’, A. absinthium ‘Lambrook Mist’ and ‘Lambrook Silver’, for instance, were deliberately chosen by Mrs Williams to subdue brighter-yellow roses. The addition of the silver-leafed vine, Vitis vinifera ‘Incana’, adds yet more sparkle.

‘Alchymist’, an egg yolk-yellow climbing rose with fully double quartered flowers, is a favourite here despite producing only one summer flush. This renowned medium-sized climbing rose is always smothered in flowers in June and is a useful plant, as it copes with poorer conditions and will even succeed on a north-facing wall. As were many ramblers, ‘Dorothy Perkins’ was raised in 1901. Its large trusses of fully double dark-pink flowers fade to lighter pink and are well partnered by the mauve-blue viticella clematis ‘Emilia Plater’.

Viticella clematis make perfect follow-up acts for summer-flowering roses because they flower in July and August. ‘Alba Luxurians’, a green-washed asymmetrical white clematis, has a natural, wild appearance as if it could be straight out of a hedgerow. Here, it lights up an arch in a shadier corner. The fully double damson-red ‘Purpurea Plena Elegans’, the flowers of which could be mistaken for a rose, is one of the best viticellas and is thought to date from the 16th century. The plummy flowers link up with dark penstemons, such as ‘Raven’, purple sage (Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurascens’) and the sultry Verbena ‘Bampton’. Further along the wall, there’s an ornamental purple vine, Vitis vinifera ‘Purpurea’. You’ll also find the deep-purple ‘Étoile Violette’, the most popular and obliging viticella of all. ‘Huldine’, a long-flowering pearlescent white, with open flowers, is head gardener Clare Loble’s favourite clematis.

Repeat-flowering roses are widely used, too, because they will produce flushes of flower throughout summer and autumn. Some have family connections. ‘Sir Walter Raleigh’, a warm-pink Austin rose named in 1985, is grown here to honour Raleigh’s wife, Bess Throckmorton. ‘Roald Dahl’, a highly fragrant apricot rose launched in 2016 to mark the centenary of Roald Dahl’s birth, does very well at Coughton. The author was also connected to the family, through his marriage to Felicity, ‘Liccy’, the sister of Mrs T.

Upright spires lift the planting and cultivated forms of our native foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, can be spotted flowering among the roses. It does so well that some seedlings are removed. Others are left to self-seed, their white and pink midsummer spires overlapping with the roses. Mrs Loble raises ‘Sutton’s Apricot’ every year because the softly hued flowers go well with deep blues, such as Anchusa ‘Loddon Royalist’. Later, the tall, deep-blue salvia ‘Amistad’ becomes a feature.

There are tall airy plants, too, and the tiny pale-pink saucers of the mallow, Althaea cannabina, will go on pleasing the bees until November. Verbena bonariensis also provides an airy presence until late into the year. There’s an emphasis on simple flowers and several blue hardy geraniums, such as ‘Brookside’ and G. x magnificum, line the paths, together with Nepeta ‘Purrsian Blue’ and lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis).

Wander on further, through an avenue of ‘Grosso’ lavender, and you’ll find several garden rooms and two colour-themed borders, one cool and the other warm to hot. It is almost 30 years since the gardens were planted and, as Mr Birch Throckmorton says, ‘they now feel mature’. Most importantly, they are beautifully planted and maintained, a tribute to all the hard work of everyone involved. As Mrs Loble says, ‘we all want the best garden possible’.

This feature originally appeared in the June 18, 2025, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe'.