Il Piccolo Roseto di Giovanni Chilanti: talk by Helga Brichet

This small rose garden on a hillside outside Rome overlooking olive groves was established by Italian engineer Emanuele Dotti in memory of a dear friend who had inspired him with a love of old and species roses. It started life as a collection of roses grown in large containers on the terrace of Emanuele’s Rome apartment, but soon expanded so that outside space became urgently needed to house them. Some land on the edge of a small village outside Rome was located, and this is the story of how the rose garden developed, with over 600 roses bushes in beds, borders, and climbing up olive trees, overlooking a valley in a beautiful countryside setting. Now there are plans to establish a reading room in the farmhouse for visitors, with a collection of books on roses from the late Milton Nurse, former editor of the Historic Rose Journal, donated by the Historic Roses Group.

Helga Brichet is a distinguished rosarian, plant-hunter and lecturer who was President of the World Federation of Rose Societies (WFRS) from 1997 – 2000. Now Emeritus President, she lives with her Belgian husband, André, in Italy, on a 5-acre hillside property in Santa Maria, Umbria, central Italy. Here Helga grows a large number of China roses and Hybrid Giganteas, Hybrid Sempervirens and “Mystery Roses” from Bermuda. In her 9 years as chairman of the WFRS Conservation Committee she established the Specialised Conservation Committee, constructing an international database on endangered rose varieties and their location. One of her ambitions has been to introduce to rose lovers in the western hemisphere old and historical roses from China, many scarcely known previously in the west. In 2000 a beautiful chance seedling rose with single pale pink blooms, discovered by Australian nurseryman John Nieuwesteeg, was named ‘Helga Brichet’.

This is the sixth in a series of seven online talks on the theme “Roses from the Arctic to Australia” in partnership with the Gardens Trust, with an international slant. Each talk is a live online presentation, chaired by Maeve Heneke, Hon Sec of the HRG, with tickets available at £5 each of £28 for the entire series of seven evenings. Talks start at 6pm and last approx. one hour, with an extra half hour for audience questions to the speaker.

You can buy a ticket here for the entire course of seven sessions for £28.

Or buy a ticket for this individual lecture here for £5.