Royal National Rose Society Gardens

The Royal National Rose Society Gardens stood east of St Albans in Hertfordshire. They were created by the Royal National Rose Society, which began in 1876. The gardens opened more than fifty years ago when Mary, Princess Royal, who was then a patron of the society, performed the opening. The society aimed to build a living dictionary of roses. At the time of closure the gardens held fifteen thousand rose bushes of two thousand five hundred different kinds. The Royal National Rose Society went into administration in May 2017. The gardens have been closed permanently since then. Before this, the mansion at Bone Hill was refurbished by the Royal Entomological Society. That society turned the building into its headquarters, known as Butterfly World. A £27 million project was launched in March 2008 at the Royal Society in London. The grounds once showed roses arranged in beds and borders across the site. Visitors could walk along paths between the rose collections. The mansion and its gardens formed a quiet green space on the edge of Chiswell Green. The society’s work gave the gardens a reputation among rose growers and garden lovers.