This week is rose week on the blog, so following on from my rose garden top five post I’m sharing a few more pictures of my favourite rose gardens, starting with the one in Hyde Park. I always think of Hyde Park as quite formal, so I was surprised to find how soft and romantic the layout of this garden is.

If you go into the park via the Hyde Park Corner Gate, which you very likely will as it’s the most convenient entrance for the garden, you enter a circular rose garden with swags of heavily scented climbing roses around the perimeter and a classical fountain in the centre.

The marble statue is of a boy and a dolphin was made in 1862 by Alexander Munro, a friend of Lewis Carroll. It originally stood in a Victorian sunken garden that was demolished when Park Lane was widened.

Past the circular rose garden there is another fountain with a small statue of Artemis, cast in 1899 by Lady Feodora Gleichen, at its centre.

And a shady rose pergola.

You can walk through the pergola, which is dotted with seats, or follow the winding paths among the beds of scented roses.

I particularly like this white rose, Sally Holmes, which is liberally planted in the rose garden.

There are plenty of benches in amongst the roses.

And some truly glorious roses to admire.