Bagatelle Parc, Paris.Credit: Alamy
PRINCESS GRACE ROSE GARDEN, MONACO
Few visitors notice this pretty, perfumed park tucked away in the residential Fontvielle district, but it provides those who do stray with a peaceful experience. It stands as a memorial to the Oscar-winning American actress who became a princess. Sheltered by palm and olive trees and studded with sculptures, the garden showcases 300 rose varieties whose QR codes allow you to find out more about them on your mobile phone. See visitmonaco.com
MONTREAL BOTANICAL GARDEN, MONTREAL
There are many reasons to visit one of the world's best botanical gardens, chief among them the Rose Garden, created for the 1976 Olympic Games. You'll find 10,000 rose bushes that present the development of roses, up to today's modern hybrid teas and floribunda varieties. Where traditional rose gardens are often formal in style, Montreal's offers a less rigid presentation, with meandering flowerbeds and pathways set among trees and ponds. See espacepourlavie.ca
ROSETO MUNICIPALE, ROME
This overlooked treasure on the ruin-scattered Aventine Hill near the Circus Maximus has large rose collections that climb over paths and sprawl up hillsides. Varieties are arranged chronologically: follow roses from ancient wild and early Roman and Damascene varieties through to hybrids with sometimes startling colours. The gardens host guided tours, concerts and theatre productions and an annual rose-breeding competition in May. A summer cocktail bar is popular with locals. See turismoroma.it
SAKURA ROSE GARDEN, SAKURA
Though little more than a decade old, this nationally important rose collection 30 minutes from Narita airport outside Tokyo is charmingly old-fashioned and presents heritage rose varieties that far surpass often scentless modern hybrid varieties when it comes to heady fragrance. The thousand variety of roses include 200 rare species donated by Seizo Suzuki, a world-renowned, twentieth-century rose breeder, and many Japanese, Chinese and other Asian varieties. See kusabueroses.jp
VALBY PARK, COPENHAGEN
The rose garden at this large city park and common features 12,000 roses organised by colour into circular flowerbeds; it has some particularly lovely climbing and miniature rose varieties. Large open spaces and a playground make this one of few rose gardens agreeable to visit with small children in tow. There's also a café. The park is at its best in early August, when it hosts a rose show. See visitcopenhagen.com
ZAKIR HUSSEIN ROSE GARDEN, CHANDIGARH
One of the world's largest rose gardens, named for an Indian president, sprawls over 30 acres and showcases some 50,000 rose bushes as well as medicinal plants. It was planted in the early days of this post-independence planned city. An annual rose festival held in late February or early March sees the garden come alive with food stalls, rides and locals vying to become the rose prince and princess. See chandigarhtourism.gov.in
PARC DE BAGATELLE, PARIS
This corner of the sprawling Bois de Boulogne is far from just a rose garden, but its roses – mostly hybrid tea roses – are impressive, planted with classical French formality to create floral carpets in repeating patterns near a 1775 chateau. Rambling roses form scented arbours. A weekend of special rose exhibitions is held every June, and in the same month a Chopin Festival sees music drift amid the blooms. See parisinfo.com
ROSEDAL DE PALERMO, BUENOS AIRES
Part of a larger park in the posh suburb of Palermo popular at weekends for cycling, jogging and street performers, this rose garden was laid out in 1914 and has a collection of 18,000 roses, seen at their best in October. Amid the pink blooms – which clash with avenues of purple jacaranda trees – you'll find a pretty white iron bridge and busts of the world's most famous writers. See turismo.buenosaires.gob.ar
ELIZABETH PARK ROSE GARDEN, HARTFORD
This Connecticut rose garden is America's oldest public rose garden and one of the country's handful of test gardens where hybrids are trialled before being commercially sold. Though there are some heritage varieties, it's mostly modern roses on show in the 475 flowerbeds, including tea roses, multi-bloom grandifloras and showy floribundas. The roses are surrounded by lawns, groves and recreation areas. Expect plenty of weekend wedding photography. See elizabethparkct.org
QUEEN MARY'S GARDENS, LONDON
Named for the wife of George V and occupying a corner of Regent's Park, this classical rose garden is centred on a fountain and embraced in a meandering lake spanned by Japanese-style bridges. It's the largest rose garden in London, with some 85 single-variety beds popping with colour, rivalled by an equally impressive selection of begonias and delphiniums. Climbing roses are looped along ropes in spectacular swathes. See royalparks.org.uk
Brian Johnston has travelled to these gardens as a guest of numerous tourism offices and at his own expense.
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